Should I buy headphones?

I guess a lot depends on what your definition of low volume is, but I definately prefer my Senn HD600s driven by a Headroom Home to listening to my BAT/DNA0.5/Vandy 2ci combo at acceptable late night volume. When I have to work at night, I often come home and listen while my family is sleeping. You can boogy or not, but it won't wake them and I find the sound very pleasant, especially with the processing circuitry which eliminates the "music in the middle of your brain" feeling you sometimes get with phones.

Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful responses. Headphones is a more complicated subject than I thought. I was interested that there are websites with extensive chat rooms dedicated to the subject. I will probably buy some headphones, although I have not yet decided which ones.

Best regards,

If low-volume listening is what you'll be doing most of, skip the headphones and set up a near-field system. Get some good, small speakers and sit close to them--a couple of feet away. You can keep the volume low, without having the weird sound (and lack of comfort) of headphones.

Of course, you'd be talking more money this way, especially if you can't (or are not comforatable) running your power amp in an A-B speaker setup. But even if you need a second amp, you can get away with something smallish. Add a Creek passive preamp and an inexpensive CD player, and you shouldn't be out a whole lot more than a set of higher-end 'phones and a headphone amp. And you will get much more natural sound. . . .

Of course, it might depend on just how much (or how little!) volume the wife can sleep through. The wife-rating of any system can trump all other factors. :-)