Somehow, I stumbled upon Futuresonics before I found Head-Fi, and I bought a pair of EM3s for $99 and added custom sleeves that cost another $185!!! Of course, the EM3s were okay, but hardly worth the added custom sleeves.
Anyway, I had the right idea, bad execution. Now I have an old pair of custom silicone sleeves that don't really work with any of my phones (they do fit the Atrios, but to me, they really ruin the sound sig).
Anyway, I had some standards, I just didn't know what they were at the time. Finding Head-Fi helped me much, especially on the amp side.