That's awesome to hear Monster, thanks for the info. I kinda fell in love with the Luxman back a few years ago when I bought it and it sounded amazing with my big KEF's but was a little worried I may be missing something by using it with headphones.
As far as music, I listen to metal primarily, Sabbath-influened kinda stuff. Black Label Society, Down (Phil Anselmo's band, not System of), Mastodon, etc but I also like some 80s stuff like the Cure, Depeche Mode, Smiths.
The reason why I kinda dig the V-Moda M-80s is that is that they have some bass-y punch without sounding fake or too dark. Listening to something like Paranoid on vinyl, that's the kind of sound that just sounds "right" to me for whatever reason. From what I've been reading, it kinda sounds like some of the Denon headphones may have a similar sound on a more refined level. You have any experience with them? You mentioned the sextette in the post I was referring to but any thoughts you may have would be much appreciated. Sounds like we have some of the same tastes in both vintage gear and music.
VModas are low ohm high sensitivity headphones meant to be driven from a mobile phone.When you start plugging those types of headphones into a vintage receiver its kind of a dart throw in the dark as to what youre going to get.Sometimes the results are good,sometimes not so good....
Im not a tech guy but essentially the impedance difference can wreak havoc on certain frequencies and cause an irregular response....For example my Sansui 881 turned my AD2000s from a hollow sounding,lightning fast headphone into a mid bass beast,at the cost of some speed....then the same receiver absolutely destroyed the sound of my Alessandros making them very muddy....Both cases it seems the midbass region that was most affected.
RE: AKG K240 sextetts.
They bring guitars right up into your face,even more so than Grados or AD2000s.When im listening to Judas Priest "Unleashed in The East" Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing are literally standing right next to my ears,just smacking my skull around with the guitar work,while Halford is about 2-3 steps back...its a very musical,foot tapping(getting too old to headbang anymore)experience.
Theyre great for guitar oriented stuff like BLS and older NWOBHM stuff...there is also a very noticeable chunk they add to guitar sound.
For neu metal that uses a lot of down tuning,or extreme metal there are better options out there.
Im not much of a fan of Down,but I like some Pantera,which sounds pretty dang aggressive thru sextetts.Mastodon I sorta like,but older stuff and NWOTHM takes up more of my listening time.
You can read more about sextetts here.Tyll is a Head-Fi member and his opinion is highly regarded.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/two-vintage-akg-headphones-k240-sextett-and-k340-electrostatic-dynamic#rZXs0480q2shbH18.97
The best part about sextetts is you can find them pretty cheaply (under 200.00)The worst part is being able to actually find a pair,knowing sextetts from the numerous other AKG K240s that arent sextetts,and finally knowing which version of the sextetts to get...theres 3,and I have them all