Dusty Chalk

That's almost redundant. I was just telling some friends earlier this story how before there were humans, there were these aliens that landed on earth not unlike cats. Then an omnipotent being materialized and told them that soon life would be evolving on this planet, and, in all likelihood, wipe them out. They had several choices -- one was to allow themselves to be dumbed down and treated as pets by this new species. Dumbing them down would prevent them from being perceived as a threat, and therefore allow them to survive. The cats said, "sure, that one".

Okay, so now you have two copies of the same CD, one without the cover?

Can I be treasurer? We ought to be rolling in dough since we're not spending thousands of dollars on ridiculous headphones.

But really, my words fail at the hilarity of the image.

VPI turntable, I presume, into Singlepower as a pre -- what are you using as a phono pre?

Re: smilies -- I rejoice! And: Halp! Halp! boomana is being repressed!

You could try contacting an administrator about it. "Correcting factual information in post" or somewhatnot.

Wouldn't that be, "...My Reflection"? (Note the singular.)

Someone had a tattoo of a cat on their stomach -- bellybutton == asshole of cat in typical cat "TMI" style.

$31?!?!? eBay is god's way of saying you have too damn much money. And: which remix?

No, bad. Post publicly, please.

Big fan of the movies (although I suck at being a fan -- haven't even seen Naqoyqatsi yet) -- Koyaanisqatsi itself is in my top 10 favourite movies of all time.

Yeah, but he also said circumaural. Well, actually, that's almost mutually exclusive with circumaural, so you may indeed want to look at Grados, as they will not heat up your ears too much. Most of my circumaurals are closed, and therefore they do get really warm if it is anything above 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Or perhaps offer drugs (Midol) or alcohol first. Or perhaps just bribes in general. Or maybe just promise (falsely) a lot of asskissing. There are many ways to our good sides.

No he can't (see "comfortable" requirement).

That's, like, your opinion, dude. And having a vested interest doesn't necessarily mean ulterior motives -- it could be they're vested because they believe in the technology. And at that level, I suspect that to be the case.

Nothing wrong with that. And yeah, feeling out your room(s) acoustically is a good idea as well. I also agree with the advice of not being in any kind of rush, and auditioning as many speakers and as many different kinds of speakers as possible. That's always good advice.

I realize this is a moot point, but I think this still needs to be pointed out: I'm confused -- you're thinking about spending 10K on amps, but you can't afford 10K speakers? You should probably rethink your budget distribution.

You obviously don't own any cats. That's hilarious to cat owners.

I humbly disagree. I know of at least two high-end upconverters that convert 16/44.1 PCM to DSD, and they're both considered desirable (Meitner, dCS).

I'm not sure what reason you're trying to imply here, but the reason most of them convert is to cut costs.

EDIT: Damnit, boomana, you beat me to it. I do think that "hella powerful" is not necessarily a good match with all speakers. But based on your description of what you say you like, and based on my understanding of things, I'd say go hella powerful. I like hella powerful, myself (got a Musical Fidelity A308, myself). I would also add "monoblocks" to your thinking, especially if you're into soundstage/separation. (Both my MF and my Manley Stingray are "dual monoblock" designs.) What I don't understand is why you're going custom. There are some mighty fine amps out there that will suit your needs (I think), well within the <US$10K mark. I'm not saying "don't", I'm just trying to understand better. Oh, and ... tubes? SS? Digital?

Yeah, there's a lot of high-frequency hash on SACD output, but it's much higher in the case of DSD than it is in, for example, a filterless DAC at 16/44.1. The bright side is that it's more phase-correct, which is why SACD's are still so pleasant to listen to. That said, unless you've heard a filterless DAC, you'll never know which you prefer. Some people prefer filterless DACs even at 16/44.1.

It's not so much that it doesn't matter, as the engineering is much more important than the resultant efficiency. I would answer your other questions, but the first page I ran across when I googled SET vs. push-pull didn't jive with my understanding, so I'm just going to shut up. Try audiokarma.org, sh.tv or one of them other audio forums.

Sony MDR-V6/-7506 -- a little bright, but nice bass. ~<US$100 Also meets most all of your other criteria -- not sure how your head is shaped -- specifically, your ears -- but this is circumaural on about 50% of the human race. See if you can find a pair to try on, for instance at a local Guitar Center. Relatively light. Can be made extra comfortable with the "Beyer pad mod".