Personally clarity, texture, detail, soundstage are example of things that eq can't help. Eq has to do with getting the right tonal balance. Most people seems to think that by using eq, they can make 150 usd speakers sound like 1500 usd speakers. That's not the correct way of using eq. People...

Anyone paired conductor with Grado gs1000?

Agreed with yage above. If you have limited budget, vintage gear is the best option for you. For 600 usd, you can get vintage bookshelf ADS speakers like L400/L710. Paired those with vintage nad 3020. If you have very good placement and enough space for this set up, it might make you forget your...

Try B+W with Marantz gear. If you find treble is still very bright, there must be something wrong with the placement of the speakers and also the size-acoustic of the room.

Very good performance for the price being asked.

Id suggest you to get good power cable. Try nordost or kimber cable if you value clarity,focus and speed. For quite background and smooth yet engaging sound try audioquest nrg 4.

Get power cord+power conditioner first. Always powered the conditioner with your best power cable. you'll be surprised how easy it is to hear the difference.

With limited space i would suggest bose companion 2. Don't get me wrong, speakers need good placement and set up to sound best. Bose speakers are among the easiest to acheive good sound in limited space.

Burson and Schiit are very different sounding. Burson has brighter tone, more bass impact, and very good treble sparkle. Schiit, on the other hand, sounds more relax. It has full bodied mid range and non fatiguing treble. 

I had a chance to pick up a nice 1976 luxman L100u in mint condition month ago. Paired it with vintage JBL L112 speakers in my bedroom. 70-80 disco/rock music never sound this good before. Very impressive and musical sounding. 

Audio Gd nfb 12!!

Try second hand audio-gd nfb-5.

I ve been driving HE6/500 with my vintage luxman l570 for while. I think this is the only way to get the best out of HE6. For HE500, i prefer pairing them with Burson Soloist. Luxman amp is very thick sounding, which complement HE6 sound signature really well.

Personally, i think better headphones help you to get into the music much faster and easier.

I would go with the first option. For the amp in general, just make sure that it has sufficient power to drive your headphones, if not you won't be able to hear the benefit of having good dac and cables.