Headphones

Headphones are a very personal decision as not only sound quality but comfort is involved.
You can spend hours reading posts here and at headphone websites debating about whether Sennheiser or Grado is "better" and will probably find no conclusive proof either way.
They are both good.
I have tried Senn. 580's at home and have listened to the 600's in various dealers.
However, my personal preference is for the Grado RS-2's.
I do not like headphone amps. I have tried 3 different models, tube, solid state and hybrid and none were much better than the headphone output of an NAD receiver. I should qualify this by adding that the NAD sounds better than the headphone outputs on any cd player or tape deck that I have tried. I have gotten more bang for the buck by upgrading headphones and my cd front end than from a headphone amp.

Although I had initially liked my old Staxes a lot, I sold them last year for $200 as I found I hadn't listened to them for years.
A recording engineer suggested that their uptilted response was great for hyperdetailed recording mixes, but way too fatiguing for extended listening. And so it seemed....
I recently purchased HD600s from a reseller in Germany for $225 (eBay), and find them MUCH more forgiving than the old Staxes. I drive them directly off my Pass Aleph P with a short $4 RCA to phone Y adaptor from the Shack. Sounds great, and they're super-comfy as well.
I'd like a few more feet of reach. Anybody out there know of a clean phone extension cord? I think Senn sells an additional 12 footer, but with a built-in volume slider, which of course won't do! Thanks. Ernie

If you need an extension Headroom.com has best selection. The DiMarzio silver at @$60 for 10ft extension
is very nice, I own one. Really you should look into getting
Clou Blue Jaspis to replace stock Senn cord, it is 3 meters
and looks and sounds great for $90. I recently bought one for my Senn HD580 and Garfish also just purchased one for his Senn HD600.

I have another thread started on Blue Jaspis where I will have to post more detailed info.

I did not read all the responses but have extensive headphone experience and own many of the highend brands and flavor of the month headphones.
I have own the HD600 and HD650s. I would pass on them. They lack dynamics and need specialty amps to sounds good.
I would buy as an alternative the Mass Drop version of the Focal, the Focal Elex. This headphone is $650ish and has a similar tone to the HD650s but has better everything. I do mean everything. I have also owned the HD800S and sold them after direct AB with the focal Elex. The HD800S has great (and I mean great) sound stage for a headphone but are bright with poor bass impact/depth (very poor IMO).
Grados are colored but worth having. I would pass on RS1 and buy the PS500e. It has a much cleaner midrange and softer more balanced highs. I have owned about 5 different pair of Grados and kept only the PS500e around, grados best headphone imo.
I have owned so many headphones and really you could just get the Focal Elex and be done. It is 95% there regardless of cost to anything on the market. They don’t have the deepest of sub bass but good enough (much deep/stronger than the HD600) and the sound stage is smaller than the HD800S but much bigger than Grado or Audeze for example.
For amps, you could start and stop with a Cord Mojo, really that good as long as you use easy to drive headphones such as the focal or grado.