What headphone amp to buy-Sennheiser HD 600?


Well, thanks to the kindness and patience of my fellow A'gon-izers, the hook-up "problem" for the headphone amp I have is solved. The amp is a Ramsey SHA 1. The phones are Sennheiser HD 600. I had remembered that amp sounding great. Now I'm spoiled by the new speakers I have, and even though the signal path to the amp is thru the Dodson DAC, I still think it sounds........not so great. Decent I suppose, but harsh on the upper end, yet without the mitigating detail, and you know, just.....unsatisfactory.

OK, OK, so here's the question(s): What's a great, fairly cheap (like, at LEAST less than a grand) headphone amp? Sonically, I want EVERYTHING!!!! (Except soundstage, that has never happened for me with any headphones, ever, I'm pretty sure not even with the expensive Stax I heard a few years ago).
It MUST have: Tight, deep, fast, smooth, tonally correct, musical bass, shimmering, non-fatiguing, emminently smooth yet ultra detailed highs, great midbass punch with no boom or softness whatsoever, midrange that is totally natural, smooth, detailed, and lacking any hint whatsoever of grain or electronic amplification artifact in the upper registers. It should sound great on ALL program material, from classical to rock to bluegrass to new age to jazz, anything and everything.

Other than those relatively modest criteria, there are no other performance demands. :)))

So, fire away!
mdhoover
Give P.S Audio a listen.Normally I would say "TUBES" given they need almost none and one can roll them to there hearts content.But reading the Stereophile review of the new Intergrated and seeing there web site if you have then nearby give then a shot.Sounds like some pretty cutting edge tech going into more than there power conditioners.If theye made a table I might do a linn,Naim,Rega,thing with them and go with a one brand system since it's voiced together.but might go with the cebter and stick to Sony/VPI and something as the ultimate transducer at the speaker end.
Happy Holidays
Chazzbo
Wow, given so many opinions it sounds like alot is left to personal taste or not alot of comparative listening. You may have to do the comparitive listening yourself, or go to the headfi.com forum and see what the total headphone geeks say!
I do like Headfi.org as a resource too. My only reservation about it, and this is a gross generalization (I hope), but in reading many posts there it seems to be a much younger crowd, and or a crowd that has different musical tastes than my own. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I don't read them much. It seems to be a much smaller crowd than Audiogon, which is understandable given the narrowed scope of the subject. The types of music used as resources for Headphone reviews there are often nothing I'd listen to much myself. Just to be sure, I just went over there and right away found this recent thread on what folks there used as source material to test out their new cans. There are currently 47 responses, so it is a pretty wide sampling, yet the general trend is toward music I rarely listen to (rap, electronica, pop, the occasional typical audiophile recordings...Krall, DSOM, blah, blah...but mostly much more dynamic, poppy, rock electronic stuff). Is this a fare reflection of headphone use in general at this level, or just those who choose to spend time writing about it on online forums do you think? BTW, I mean no offense at all to those who have different musical tastes, they simply are not mine. Speakers/Headphones that sound great with Electronica, Pop and Rap are not necessarily going to sound superior with Accoustic, Folk, Vocals, for example. Bottom line is, like with what I read here, I take what I read with a large grain of salt and do try to read as much as I can elsewhere as well. I still would not hesitate to recommend Headfi.org as a good resource. But it is a different crowd in general than those I see posting here. I'm sure there's crossover, but I get a strong impression that it the two camps are quite different nonetheless.

Marco
Quick update: Stax Lambda Pro headphones and some sort of a matching Stax Tube headphone amp to be dropped off at my house for auditioning on Monday evening, 1/9/06. Swampwalker, or anyone else--->any thoughts? Thanks.
I had the Lambda Pros with a Stax 006t and liked it very much, except for the aforementioned sweating problem. Be aware that if you tube-roll the 006t, the biasing is a rather complicated procedure that involves iterative adjustments. If you decide you like it and want a near new hp extension cable, let me know. I can't remember why, but I think I preferred the Lambda Pros to the newer 404 series phone. I prefer my AKG K1000s driven by a Cary 300sei, but thats quite a bit more $. You will find the Stax to be more detailed and more forward than the Senns, but I found the Senns to be much more comfortable.