[Henerenry]

Do yourself a favour, buy yourself a headphone that is very good unamped.

That means AT's, Grado's/Alessandro. Now, go out and listen to both headphones of both companies. Buy second hand if possible.

Use the rest of the money on a decent sound card, such as the asus stx.

Save up your money and buy a seperate amp and dac at a later date.

 

[gevorg]

First, Audio-gd Compass DAC/amp combo. A no-brainer for ~$350 shipped.

Then, for the remaining $250 I would pick one of these headphones: Denon D2000, AKG K701, Grado SR-225i, or Beyerdynamic DT 880.

This will be a major bang-for-your buck midrange hifi system.

 

[bada bing]

With luck and patience you could find an assembled y1 and CTH for $300ish.

AMB y1 > CTH > ~ $300 Headphone of choice

That's pretty much my work rig except I added a y2 and my phones are $150 (used) over that budget (RS-1 or HF-2 grados). It's a very fun and adaptable set up that could suffice for an only rig without too much upgraditis setting in. The DIY stuff is harder to source used, but in some cases gives better performance and value for the money.

 

[Currawong]

The Stax SR-5NB and Fitz-mod SRD-X I got for $400, then an AMB y1 for $100 + DIY interconnects + DIY PSU.

 

[IPodPJ]

A used Pico DAC/Headphone amp and used HD600. If any money left, a used cable upgrade for the phones.

 

[oatmeal769]

If you do some looking around and wait for good deals to pop up, you can get this stuff close to your budget.

A Little Dot Mark V amp. I think you can get more bang for the buck with S.S. than tubes in this price range.

Used Sennheiser HD-600. No penalty for buying used headphones. If anything, they get better with age.

Used ZERO Dac or Zhaulu 2.5 DAC These pop up all the time.

Buy some interconnects from Blue Jeans Cable, or other reputable cost effective supplier. They may look pretty, but more expensive cables aren't worth it.

Do your shopping right, and you'll have a killer sounding rig, regardless of cost.