Okay, so a large part of the consensus I seem to be getting here is that Any amp I spent up to a $1000 on would still be limited by my K701's?
I was interested in another amp but I admit it may be silly to spend $270 on headphones and $1000 on the amp.
I already have my Xiang Zheng 708b as well. By the way, the new tubes arrived today and I popped them in. The sound difference from the stock Chinese tubes is very notable.
The LCD-2's seem interesting. I'm definitely interested in the sound. Though I'm a little afraid they might not be that comfortable on my big head. One thin that drove me away from Seinheisers was that I found them very uncomfortable in the few instances I had a chance to wear them (a few people at my work sport them). Because of my big head, many full-size headphones clamp down on my ears and squeeze my head. I can't stand to wear them too long.
We have a pair of old Sony MDR-F1's in one of the edit suites at work. They are perhaps the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. But unfortunately they are so old and abused that somehow one of the channels has a permanent buzz in them which made it difficult to listen to. The K701's are near that comfort level for me since I've padded them - see: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/321237/k701-appreciation-thread/1485#post_7452915
Not that sound quality isn't important to me but if I'm going to be listening for hours on end, it's crucial to have the comfort there. It seems there are a lot of good phones that are uncomfortable.
I was really interested in the Grado PS1000 as well though it's probably just a little too expensive for my credit card.
Livewire...the Stax system really intrest me. I'd head of Jecklin Floats before and was really interested in the wide soundstage described. That's the main thing I'm liking about the K701's, is that they have a pretty wide soundstage (in my opinion). Looks like they cost $1750 NZD (about $1400 USD) from here:
http://www.soundline.co.nz/store/product_info.php?products_id=81
I'll bet I could get them stateside for cheaper though.
I wonder if I could demo them somewhere locally...because it sounds really intriguing.
A few mentioned the Burson HA-160. It's not tube but it looks like very good craftsmanship/quality. I don't necessarily have to go tube. I just had a soft spot for them. Brought back memories and such but like I said I have my Xiang Zheng for that
I'm really into photography as well but I'll be the first to admit I use my Digital SLR way more often now than my old Film SLR's. Digital technology has caught up to analog in many way I'll admit.
I'm going to bookmark the amp for now.
A few mentioned the M3 (in conjunction with the LCD's).
Please forgive my ignorance. I hadn't heard of this. It's a DIY amp? I don't know much about it or if my skills are up to it but maybe I'll have to look into it at some point. There are a couple of engineers at work that might be into helping me build something if I asked nicely.
A lot of other interseting suggestions. Forgive me, I need time to explore them before I comment.
Uncle Erik, you recommended avoiding the experimental tube amps from HK. While I see what you are saying, I think too many are quick to dismiss some of these. My GF is Chinese and I've visited South China (in a place about 2 hours from HK) for about 7 weeks a 4 years back. I was surprised at some the innovation I saw there. Yeah there was a lot of rubbish, rip-off stuff but I actually saw some real craftsmanship in some things. I visited a guy who made all his own guitars and basses and other traditional chinese instruments. He made his own amps and pickups and other things. He didn't have a company and just sold his stuff out of his home as a side hobby (he was just a labourer for his day job). I bought a small DVD player that would mount in the place of a car-size deck. Not only did it play CD's, DVD's, VCD, MP3's, WMA's etc... It could also play Xvid/Divx mpeg4 movies files, not just from disc but it also had a USB port which the deck could browse for playable files. It had component out and looked cool to boot. And only cost me about $28 USD. My point is, there are interesting things going on there and even though there are so many rip-offs and wannabes, there is also some innovation. But now I'm thinking maybe it's better to wait till I go to China next time and stop by HK and demo some of these rather than ordering blindly.
Anyway, I've ranted again and I'm going to cut it short here. Sorry if I did not get to every point raised in the thread thus far. I'll go back and re-read later in the week when I'm not working double shifts
