These threads always have ten posts with ten different suggestions. Even a forum dedicated to these questions can hardly point out a clear winner.   Sound is subjective, so you might have to try a few things. I use the Nufore HDP with my 650's and love it.

Got the Philips in today. Spent only about 10 minutes with them so far.   Impression: I hate to say it, I'm unimpressed. I was expecting more over the Monoprice headphones. Maybe that kind of took some of the thunder from it.

I wouldn't buy from you just based off of this post.I hope you at least sell the units as used. Quote:  

Ordered a set of the Phillips. Don't really see a point in "bass head" headphones, but hopefully they are balanced enough for my liking. At least these should fit better than the Monoprice 8320's. Got them from Amazon with free 2day shipping. Should be here Saturday.

So, which actually is the better sounding headphone of the Thermaltake and Phillips?

Not gonna happen. Although I wouldn't say the ST is particularly good, I don't think there is much in the $200 range that is going to give you any bump in sound quality.

Wow. Glad I got my HD650's for $330 just a couple of weeks ago. I got them from Amazon.

Picked these up with a recent cable purchase. Real nice buy for $7.11. Got them plugged into my Nuforce HDP at the moment. My only real complaint, you can hear every single movement of those cables. Kind of annoying.   +1, will buy again!

A list of pc specs couldn't hurt. How is everything setup? Any devices nearby that could be attributing to the noise?   I have a similar setup and no issues. I use HDP to drive my HD650's via the usb connection, and have the rca out's connected to my speakers.

  Quote: You just told us. It caught fire!   Really though, it could have been anything mentioned above. Silverstone makes some good psu's so I might look at the card first.   So how did you put this fire out? Did you get an extinguisher and paint the pc with it?  

In the future, I can definitely see another pair of Grado's in the lineup.

Just to update. Like I said before, I replaced the 325is with the HD650's and I now have a Nuforce HDP on the way. I returned the Essence ST, as that was just kind of the "gateway drug".

Quote:   Yes, and they are nice. How is that supposed to justify the purchase to others though?

Quote: I agree.   For a while, I only used my Grado 325is. Then I wanted more, and purchased a Asus Essence ST. I then started to really hate the fatigue of the Grado's, and bought the HD650's. I've now decided to send the sound card back, and trade it out for a Nufore HDP. At some...

As far as my system, I am thinking of ditching the Asus ST, sending it back to Newegg, and just using an external headphone amp/dac with a line out. The Nuforce HDP looks like it is gonna fit the bill pretty well.