I've got them recently too (have had them for a week now) and I use them connected straight into my laptop while I wait for my r2r11 to arrive. The soundstage does sound compressed (though you still get a sense of sound coming from out of your head, however close it might be), the imaging is very good but the rest might sound a bit muffled. It still sounds like a decent headphone nevertheless. As far as volume/loudness goes, with the records that sound louder on the regular I can drive them pretty well (up to 70% in some cases is more than enough) and in others that are quieter I might need the 100%, but for the most part I can get them to a sufficiently loud volume. With a dedicated DAC/amp (r2r11 in my case) I expect their sound to be opened up and be more refined and detailed, more airy and expand the soundstage a little bit and perhaps improve the imaging even more as a result.