That 'at 50%, I'm buying close to cost' is the exact argument I was telling myself this morning after putting in an order for the deepblue2, knowing that I've actually been responsible about not buying a whole bunch of stuff I'll never listen to. As much as I like my Android phone, the speakers aren't that great and I'd like to be able to have higher quality audio to listen to around my place, without needing expensive monitors and cabling everywhere. Some of my stuff is only in 24bit, so keeping it in its current format is definitely a big convenience for me too.

Nov 2014 isn't too far away, especially with how quickly the weeks have been going by.

Now I need to find a good way to transmit Bluetooth from my desktop computer. Found a few USB transmitters but the Amazon reviews aren't great. Would appreciate any suggestions that hopefully don't require a PCI slot.

I hope deepblue2 is a substantial improvement over the original.  The kid and I listened to the original, feeding it bluetooth from our phones, last summer, at one of the retailers on Roosevelt Way in the U-District in Seattle (forget which one).  Now, keep in mind that this is a kid who has steadfastly refused to give up his Apple earbuds when given a whole bunch of alternatives from Sennheiser, Westone, and Monster.  The first test track was my standard first evaluation track, the Baltimore Symphony recording of the Dvorak "New World" symphony.  Suffice it to say, I was decidedly unimpressed; congestion, lack of dynamics, and instrumental timbres that weren't quite right.  I started to say "Do you hear ...," and before I could get any further, he said, "yeah, this thing sucks."

Maybe it's just me, but I would expect something like classical to not sound so great from a device like this. It's a glorified clock radio, not a 2 channel setup replacement.

Holy shit... Crazy sale from Senn:

35% off everything at the Sennheiser store!!!!
 
HD800 for $974 (with free $25 HD music credit too!)
 
use code: 35OFFSENN
 
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/high-quality-headphones