I used to hate them, but multi-touch capable touchpads are pretty rockin'. And you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard, so it's faster than a mouse.
You have a point if they paid for ray samuels amps. But the vast majority of people giving advice on this particular web forum have spent quality time with the gear they're recommending. No one is saying the guy at GNS is tone deaf. Just misinformed.
You won't have great experiences using low impedance headphones balanced out of the dacs. The amp built into the aqvox isn't good (or at least the one in the cec isn't, and they're effectively the same, only the cec is in a smaller case.
You could always go the custom IEM route. About a grand, sensas, ultimate ears, or westones...
Then there's the leatherhead (L3000) and R10s.
Slightly down that path, I have a pair of sony CD3000s for sale that some people really like
That reads as "While jerking off, tmonk says 'I don't like your face'. He then continues to jerk off, and says 'I don't like your hair, and I don't like you.' Then he finishes."