$500 to spend - any suggestions

[addictive]

My birthday today - great day and celebration and some lovely presents. Some people gave cash and when added up it totals about $500. I'm keen to actually spend it on an item not just put it in the bank or in my wallet where it will get spent on sundries.

It's nice to get oneself a gift with this amount of cash and its enough for the item to be something you wouldn't necessarily buy spontaneously. But I'm at a bit of a loss for what I could get. i already have an iPhone SE and don't need or want an iPad.

I'm likely going to get one of the new Macbook Pros which I've long saved for even though I'm less than happy about the direction Apple has taken their laptops in.

I'm looking for suggestions for any tech stuff I could spend $500 on. I am thinking perhaps the Apple Watch series 2, I'm recently back in the gym but don't know how useful the watch would be.

Maybe Beats Solo 3? I need new headphones.

I'm open to other tech ideas not just Apple stuff. If you've got any cool suggestions please post them below.

Cheers.

 

[Mike5254]

Can't think of any Tech Stuff right now except Wishing you the Best on your Birthday. Happy Birthday!

 

[velocityg4]

You say you are likely to get a new MacBook Pro. Which you have been saving for. It would make sense to put the $500 towards that. Rather than blowing the money for the heck of it.

As for headphones get the Sony MDR-V6 or MDR-V7506. For a set of highly reputable Studio Monitors. Beats are overpriced and over emphasize the bass. Some studio monitors will reproduce the audio more closely to what they heard when they mastered an album.

 

[Unami]

happy birthday!

i think the apple watch is a nice thing to have and it can be pretty useful for keeping you motivated in the gym. other than that... 500$ is a nice amount of "toy" money when it comes to gadgets, but not enough for a "serious" thing like a macbook pro. i tend to spend my tech-toy-money on things i wouldn't get otherwise - last year it was the apple watch (wearing it every day) this year i got a playstation vr headset (nice toy, but lacks games), next year maybe a small 3d printer.

when shopping for headphones - depends on what you need. if you plan to wear them while walking around during the day, there are probably other things to consider than sound quality (ergonomics, wireless, battery life, replaceable cable, design, noise cancelling). i guess the wireless beats are decent but overpriced bluetooth headphones - there's only so far you can go with bluetooth sound quality anyway. if you're going for the best sound quality alone, there are better ones than the beats.

 

[phrehdd]

Oh hmm so many geek toys for 5 bills

A high end laptop case AND a back pack
A quality docking station though it might be TB2 rather than TB3
A docking station like this one that also provide for an optical burner and hard drive storage (TB2 but damn impressive)

headphones as you mentioned and you may want to check some better sites for recommendations on what works well with a laptop and perhaps iPhone . If not, then look at some in the same family as the Oppo PM-3 sets, HiFiman HE-400s,
or perhaps you get a decent wired set and then a wire free blue tooth headset.

(there are some better but you'll get the idea.

tablet if you are into the arts or similar such as intuos

depending on your use, some software (games or real apps)