Hate to resurrect a thread, but I've been worrying about just this issue. I knew how silly the idea was, but the combination of the extreme painfulness of the 780's headband + fitting right into that groove in the skull, had me a little scared. Ordered a velvet pro 900 headband to try replacing...

For different rewirings, I've been looking at Moon-Audio as well as Apuresound V3 cable. From various accounts Jena Labs seems to be the best you can get, but I'd like to see a comparison, though that would be hard to set up.

I'm a noobie here and this looks interesting. I actually stumbled across this thread while thinking of buying some woodied Alessandro MS-1's... I was interested mainly for the "fun" sound I hear about, and if these are more detailed than usual I wonder if they're for me or not.

HeadStage USB DAC Cable, $39. I have not heard one yet but the reviews I've seen seem to indicate it's unquestionably better than onboard and most common soundcards. Xonar/etc are probably better, but it's a neat looking little device.

"Solid performance as a DAC/amp, with a way to upgrade to a different amp down the road." I'm thinking of going with this plan, but I wonder how the Emerald's DAC compares? Is the difference in price largely because of the amp or the DAC section, or what? I'm sure this has been answered, but...