Should I buy headphones?

There are a lot of good phones out there - I own several like the Koss Electrostats - AKG - Sennheiser - but the most fun and good sounding are the Sony Surround wireless DP-IF 5100. These allow you many options including digital input for direct connection to your CD or DVD player and several options for playback - They are fun to listen to! The wireless feature also is convenient - 499 price tag retail - I find myself not wanting to listen to the others.

Living out in the hills of Tennessee, I can play my music just as loud as I darn well please. I don't have to worry about thin walls, irate neighbors, etc. The headphones do come in handy for those interminable periods of time when my power amp is back at the factory getting retubed. I echo Jbweaver's comments about the Sennheisers. They really help when I need a music fix.

Ever since my daughter was born, I found myself listening more to headphones than speakers. While I still prefer listening to speakers, I have adapted to headphones. You can find much info on headphones at headfi.org and headwize.com. Search their forums for reviews and comparisons. While I like the Sennheisers, my personal preference is for the Grado RS-2. That said, there is no absolute here, just preference. You will find endless debates in various forums on Grado vs Sennheiser, with no clear winner. If your preamp has tubes, it might match up well with the Sennheisers, as they seem to do well with tubes. Grado's tend to have a richer sound. Sennheiser's have a little more detail. ymmv.

The Headroom gives a fair amount of information at www.headphone.com as well as selling headphone amps (which I use in combination with tubes). As with speakers, it's a matter of taste. I liked the HD600s but sold them, preferring Grado RS-2s (which have great sound but can be a bit uncomfortable) and AKG 501s (very open sound but less bass than the Sennheisers). -- You can look at frequency response curves for these and other headphones at www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=10. Good Luck.

The senns are great. Headphones really don't get much better. See the headroom site as mentioned above.
I use the 580's. Two slightly bad things about them: 1. They project noise to the outside environment too - so you might still disturb others. 2. They are open backed, so outside noise will come to you.

The headroom site actaully has a headphone searcher that lets you input some parameters.