I think I just figured out the appeal of the JH13's. It's an oversimplification, but: 'you can't do that'. Let me explain: so the theory is, if you start at the top (Stax O2), you run into a dilemma, because it is natural to still want to upgrade, but you've got nowhere to upgrade to. So two conflicting feelings emerge: satisfaction, and upgradeitis -- the combination of which leads to frustration. So you invent things to appease the upgradeitis -- namely, DIY mods. Well, with the JH13's, you can't do that. Well you can, but you have to have really, really small hands and be able to work in small places with small things -- kind of like a watchmaker. This will -- for the most part -- Darwin away most people. That leaves the satisfaction part, and only a small amount of upgradeitis, which can be more easily appeased by buying another notebook, netbook, laptop, or desktop. Or getting a Pico Slim, Pico DAC/Amp, TTVJ Amp/DAC, Headroom portable amp, or something similar of the sort. Or you can start investigating different softwares.