[Mr. Morden]

I thought I had settled for sure on trying the AKG K712 Pros, but now I'm unsure again. I have HD595's as my current "best" headphones (I also have AKG K340 Electrostats, but I don't listen to them a lot - maybe they're better in some ways?) and I like them a lot but would like to upgrade to something with better sub-bass and a generic "overall upgrade" - I can't pinpoint anything I really dislike about the 595's but I'm sure if I heard better I'd be happier, if that makes sense. I'm going to use these for gaming, so their positioning should be good but I also will use for music and want them to sound fantastic - enough so that I might use them more than my B&W 602 S3 speakers which I primarily use right now. I'd like to shrink that into a pair of headphones if possible, maybe even a slight upgrade to that sound signature to boot (I can dream right?).
 
So I'm between the HD600s, HD650s, AKG K712 Pros, Philips Fidelio X2s, Hifiman HE-400s, and Hifiman HE-500s. I'm not crazy about bright, so the K712's concern me and I think some tubes to roll the highs would be needed (I have no headphone amps currently). I know most of these require an amp to sound their best, and I plan to buy a good one - though I'm still ??? here too. The DarkVoice 336SE seems nice and isn't too expensive, but I'm a bit leery of Chinese tube amps and grounding issues. Also considered the Schiit Valhalla, but it can't tube roll so that's a bit disappointing. The Woo Audio WA3 and WA6 were also higher end options I considered, I know those have a good following and they look great (Yeah I know, don't judge on looks alone - but when all the amps have people saying they sound great then looks and price is all I can kinda go on to go with reviews). I'm thinking of going with something simple like the Schiit Modi 2 for a DAC with optical capability to drive whatever amp I get as I have no outboard DAC currently.
 
Overall I like a balanced sound leaning a bit toward warmth. I feel like I'll never know what of these I'll like from reviews alone, so I would like to get this list down to just 2-3 so I can buy all of them, sample, and send back those I don't care for. The problem is, so many of these require amps and I have none. I'm ok with buying the amp first, but then what amp? Something rounded off would help greatly for the K712s, but would probably be a bad match for the HD650s. Some like the Hifiman take a lot more power, so an amp that might work ok for the X2s and 600s might be inadequate for them. Is there any chance of a single amp being flexible enough to handle all of these options, including my current HD595's and AKG K340 electrostats (which I also know are power hungry, I've never fed them with a headphone amp)? I feel like the X2s might be something I'd really like, but they're very new compared to the other options here so it's hard to compare them to the other options.
 
This is really all overwhelming and I don't have anywhere locally that has any of these things to hear in person. Best Buy Magnolia is the best I've got, and their selection is awful and poorly configured to boot. Suggestions in any way here? I'll take any and all advice

 

 

[lusagi]

Well the HD600 is on sale from Focus Camera for $255 right now, if you can decide quick enough.  Sometimes you need to let your wallet lead the way to saving money.  Don't worry too much though because this price comes up about every month on Slickdeals.net(where the deal came from).
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA29P2CE2070

 

[Mr. Morden]

Thanks, I saw the deal posted for the HD600's on SlickDeals so I was wondering about those with that in mind. I mean on some level, money isn't an object here. I don't mind spending $500-600 on headphones if they'll be worth it. I don't want to just buy expensive headphones for the sake of it though if truly buying a cheaper set will make me the happiest. I guess at its base level, I wonder how the Hifiman HE-500 sounds compared to the Philips X2, the K712s, and the HD600s. From what I can see the HD600s don't really look drastically better than the HD595s, at least nothing I can see that looks really obvious. I feel like if I bought them, I'd think they sound good but then comparing to the 595s I might think they're not worth the additional price for such a similar sound.

 

[Youth]

How much are you willing to spend in total for headphone and amp (maybe even dac also)?

 

[Mr. Morden]

Hmm, maybe $1,000-1,200? I mean, if a fantastic system would cost $1,300 I could swing it. There's not an explicitly hard limit, just a desire to stay under $1,000 if possible. I wish I could buy the nice headphone amp first and try it with all my current headphones and then buy several of these and compare but I'm not sure that's feasible considering the different demands of these respective headphones. Maybe there would be for solid state, but I would like a pure OTL tube amplifier if at all possible, even better if it's point to point wired like the DarkVoice or Woo Audio.

 

[Youth]

I think HE-500 would suit you nicely. Not sure about the amp for it though.