Whats the Story w/ Headphones?

I bought a pair of HD600's about 4 months ago and what a whole new world! Even though I have a good set of speakers, there is no room interaction to deal with. Amazing level of "musicality". As far as an outboard amp, Musical Fidelity puts out the Xcan for ~$300 or, of course, Headroom amps for more money. I believe that the consensus is that most CD player/preamp manufactureres add on headphone amps as somewhat an afterthought and are not that good. My Sonic Frontier Line 2SE preamp has the Headroom op amp with the "imaging processor" in it. Very good, however, I have not compared it to others.

Let's see, you can buy a Senn 600/650. Then buy an aftermarket cable. Then buy a quality headphone amp. When all is said and done, you've spent, maybe, $800 minimum.
Or, you can buy a Koss ESP/950 for $600.
Or, you can buy a Stax 2020 or 3030 for $600 or $1000.
Any of these electrostatics will easily surpass Senn or Grados. I know. I dumped my Senn 600 for the Koss which I found on Ebay for $375 new. I've never looked back.

I would just like to add that the nice thing about the Stax electrostatic phones is that they are available with interfaces (which hook up to your existing stereo amp) or with their own dedicated solid-state or tube class-A amplifiers, many of which have two inputs and a direct bypass output. The latter approach seems to work much better than plugging a set of cheap phones into the headphone jack on a CD player or even a good preamp...

Sean, Lafayette headphones were my first exposure to the world of headphones. I can recall listening to Led Zeppelin way back when and being amazed by the stereo panning effects on "Whole Lotta Love" from Zepp II. I never knew that Lafayette made electrostatic phones, but I think it's cool that you have a working set!

I like the Stax 2020...I was very impressed as it was real close to the 3030 in sound. I got them here on the Gon for $425.00 and bought the 16' extension cable used for 35.00, I thought it was quite a bargian. Detail, resolution and warmness with outstanding tight bass are the Stax hallmarks in their stats.

How familiar are you with headphone listening? If you are not, I suggest you buy something for under $100 and see if you can justify spending more. It's sorta like the rest of high end: you probably didn't invest until you got your feet wet.

I, for one, cannot tolerate headphones for serious or relaxed listening.