Hey Rico613, thanks so much for your great response. My primary interest lies in opera. In that genre, unfortunately, nobody that sings today can really match the great talents of the past such as Callas, Pavarotti, Bjorling, etc. My question relating to the HD 800s and the V200 is whether this specific combo compared to other combos does fairly well with older recordings or whether, because of the highly detailed sound signature of the HD 800s, the hiss and other mistakes in older recordings make them very unpleasant to listen to. My only comparison is the Grado RS1 connected to a Lehmann Linear amp. That combo seemed to do very well with these older recordings. Yes there was hiss, etc., but these issues were very much in the background and the beauty of the music was really allowed to shine through. My hope with using the V200, which seems to be a warmer SS amp, is to take just a touch of the edge off of the HD 800s to make these older recordings sound more pleasant without really compromising the overall sound picture too much. Any thoughts?