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
Md- The 300 sei is a 300b-based, single ended integrated amp with a headphone jack. The 300b output tubes are expensive but it has great midrange and since I mostly listen to acoustic instrumentation and voice, its a good match. The AKGs have a very unique "form factor" that some people cannot abide and which generally are driven straight off speaker outputs of low power amplifiers (4-10wpc) due to their very high impedence.
Ah, sorry I missed that you might be rolling 300B's. WhooHaaa, then you are talking some bucks. Still many amps using those tubes are auto-biased as well. Actually I've recently been doing a bit of rolling in my 300B amps and have really been initially very impressed with the new Svetlana tubes that are only around $240 pair from CONUS in Canada. They offer more detail, clarity and impact in the midrange on my rig, at the expense of some of the overall balance, and do-everything-right of the WE 300B's that I've grown accostomed too. I wasn't at all fond of the TJ meshplates...just overall too soft. I could happily live with the Svets. WE's still rule to my ears, but not such a clear winner in comparison with the new Svets. Yes, rolling tubes in a 300B amp can be an expensive endeavor.

Marco
Consider also the Singlepower range of headphone amps or the headroom amps for a lower budget.
If you have those high demands get the AKG K1000. I own Grado RS-1 and Senn hd600 (heard the 650) - I heard the K1000 and end of story it was in another league altogether while creating a soundstage outside of the head (by a little bit). If you can hear them do so before centering a system around the Senns. I wished someone would have told me about the AKG's before I went down that road.
Robm321, and everybody else who has contributed to this thread so far:

Thank you all very much. Headphones are a whole new realm for me.