Headphone amp and headphones... ?

I doubt that someone who asks for
headphone advice on an Audiogon Forum is interested in DIY solutions.

Yeah, you're probably right. The only reason I mention them is that DIY plays a much bigger role in the mainstream world of Headphones than it does in the world of speaker-based high-end. Some of the DIY offerings are certainly right up there with anything any of the larger manufacturers offer and sometimes excel any of them when paired with certain cans. I also mention it because DIY builds are often available on the used market, and there are some folks who make commissioned builds as well as those who build kits and sell them (like Rockhopper). One of my impressions of headphone addicts is that they are a more tweaky bunch, in general, than the speaker-based group you might find here.

Which Stax are you using now, Tonykay? I was very impressed with the O2, but other examples have not really impressed me nearly as much.

The Stax seem of course worth checking out, but they don't make it too easy with their peculiar cable ending and their apparent need for a high dollar headphone amps.

Has anyone tried the combination of the benchmark 1 DAC with the LCD-2? I am interested in hearing opinions.

I too am very interested in opinions from experienced a'goner's who have tried various headphone/amp combos over the years and settled in on a particular combo for some particular reason.

I have been doing some experimenting of late with some of teh better and older phones I have, a pair of Stax SR-80s, and a pair of Realistic Nova 45s, which are virtually unknown it seems these days and I always thought were not half bad phones back in the day compared to others.

There are some high tech and expensive in-ear phones out there these days. I've always thought the in-ear approach done really well might be the optimal way to get the best headphone sound for lowest cost, but have not tried any of these yet.

Listen to the Sennheisers, Grados, AkG's. Go to Heaphone.com and get their amp. The resulting sound will be much better than your current system....actually, better than almost any speaker system.