Yuck.

Thanks rude wolf that's perfect, just a few quality suggestions. Not trying to reinvent the wheel at this stage, just get a couple ideas that I can dig into myself. As for the rest of ya's...this is not some dive bar, or a frat house, this is indeed a headphone forum, I'm sure most of the members here were banished from real life or chose to gracefully bow out years ago...lol

Whoops. Meant to mention, one prerequisite is I want to go with tube (or hybrid) amplification as part of my "try new things" speech.

Hello, Just picked up a set of HD600's. Did a solid hour long listening session comparing them to HD650's off an obnoxious $4500 McIntosh something or other CD player (just to be on the safe side, lol) at my local stereo shop.. Money no object, greatly preferred the 600's. Felt like the 650 simply added a driver with a bigger motor and some supporting mods, giving it more presence but overly so, making the finer details of the 600's appear warmed over. I will be predominately listening to classical, which was the genre where the major differences really made themselves known in my demo session. Felt like the 650's were more a money grab than anything else....anyway! I need amplification. I used to work 3 jobs so I was never home much so I'm from the car audio world. I got to the point where I was running a fully active system (pioneer P99 as my source unit) with Class A/B amps, messed around with some RTA tuning, never competed, but my point is all around I know and appreiate what quality sound is and have a decently honed ear. But I'd like to try new things beyond traditional amplification. I'd REALLY like to keep the budget around $300, I've been out of audio for almost a year and I'm a firm believer in starting simple, learning what you like and what you would like to hear different, and upgrading equipment after a period of familiarity, not just buying "the world's biggest cookie". Also, I've heard guys like to upgrade the cable to the HD650 cable, but is there anything priced right that's more durable that would be a worthy upgrade as well? Long thin hangars anyone? Thanks!