The Best Audiophile Earphones headphones and Amp

All the advice above is good. (and agree the HeadFi site is dominated by teens and twentysomethings)
You will like STAX. The traits the OP list are what the Stax electrostic headphones offer best.
(I own some Stax given to me, but have not used them, as the transformer box needs a separate amp to run it.) I also own Sennheiser HD800, and Beyerdynamic 990.. and four different headphone amps from $250 Lil' Dot II to a $2,000 Rudistor II

O2Mk.I and BHSE are worth investigating although the wait for the BHSE is approx 1 year.

Gopher: good point about the budget... Having said that, I do not expect the same type of crowd here as head-fi. Not only referring about the average age, but also (it correlates though) about the wallet size. I think people who have invested into a high-end loudspeaker system including room treatment will typically have sufficient funding for a good headphone system...

Matjet: the Orpheus is no longer manufactured. Lucky enough, you could find one used for 6-8kUSD I believe (you'd still need an amplifier which I believe would also run into 5kUSD, no less). I did not listen much to it, but basically I am not sure it is good value considering the C32 is just around the corner (and likely a very serious contender).

Stax C32 is projected to cost between 300 and 500kJPY which is 4 to 6kUSD at current rate. But again, with some Stax distributors being a bit thirsty, it could go north of that in Europe or the US... Release is targeted for "spring" which, by Japanese standard, could be March-April time frame.

Some information about the design found here: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/520391/tokyo-fall-2010-headphone-festival . My listening impressions here: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/531743/new-listening-impressions-of-stax-c32-prototype

Arnaud

I would love to listen to the Stax C32 when it is released and compare it to some other high-end headphones. I will have to find a Stax dealer in the my area (Ma.) who carries it.

Tonykay 02-05-11: Used units on Audiogon are safe bets. Stax headphones are hard to damage-I've been using mine for about 20 years and they still sound GREAT!

Ditto!

If you want to consider a used pair of Stax's, you should be aware that original Stax replacement earpads can be obtained from Audiocubes2.

The earpads are supplied together with a replacement for the piece of foam that covers the electrostatic element. A couple of years ago I replaced the pads and the foam on my mid-1980's Stax Lambda Pro's, because the foam was disintegrating. They continue to work as new, after 26 years.

Regards,
-- Al