Seconding the massdrop fostexes though with the note that you may end up wanting to change the pads from stock depending on how they fit your ears, so potentially take that into account for budget Should be noted that the fostexes do leak more than average for a closed if privacy is a concern

From what I understand you are correct. They are either Virtual Surround or have multiple cheapo drivers per ear. In both cases they have integrated cheapo DAC+amps+DSP as all the headsets I've seen in this class are USB.

Aren't the Aeons planar rather than electrostats?

They just recently made a closed version called NightOwl, should be a thread on it in the first few pages

You can use optical out on your sound card and go into a good dac which has optical in which will do the actual converting. This lets you have system wide EQ while still using as good a dac as you can afford. I am using a sound blaster z into a bifrost multibit.

Hey guys, been lurking for a while and decided to get into Stax recently. Probably going with an amp directly from Stax USA since I read in this thread that those come with proper US compatible power supplies, can anybody share how long they usually take to process and ship an order? Wondering...

I was considering LCD-2s for my endgame since they have such a good rep but I'm in the minority that doesn't like wood grain and the idea of additional comfort issues ended up bumping my budget significantly to go for something else.

Quote:   I'm using the brainwavz angled and they're very nice once they get installed but stretching them out to the rings and not outright breaking the rings was a huge pain. I stripped the rings from the default velours, don't know if that affected their ability to properly hold their...

It's a set of pads that you stick in (or under) the earpads that attenuate the high end to taste. I believe it comes with 4 black pads and 2 white pads, with the white pads being a stronger effect.