The Best Audiophile Earphones headphones and Amp

Gopher, My budget is extremely flexible. What is the retail price for He90s, Sennhieser Orpheus? How do they sound? How do they compare to Stax Omega 2 Mark II?
Acharpen has told me that the Stax Omega 2Mark II and SRM 727A amp combo retails for about $3,500. That would not be a problem for me if I liked the sound as much as Acharpen. I wonder, what will be the price for the new Stax C32 and when will it be released?
If the headphones are comfortable and sound as great as Acharpen says, I would be fine with spending the money. I would have to listen to them before buying.
As far as traits:
Comfort, dynamic, detailed, fast, beautiful life like musical sound, 3D soundstaging, black silent background, excellent low level detail, superb decay, deep detailed bass, great midrange, sweet treble, great transients. I am looking for superb detail with tube like bloom. Basically, I want it all. Can headphones do this? Personally, I have never experienced this with headphones. But, Acharpen's discussion is very convincing that it is possible.

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.