I would definitely stick with Sennheisers for open air listening (having not heard Grados for 15 years), but if you're wanting to keep the noise down for your sleeping roomate, open may not be the way to go. I'd recommend AKG DJ81s for good low end punch, and pretty darn good mids and highs. You could also consider the Sennheiser HD280s, but I found the AKGs to be generally superior.
Oh, and as for the headphone amps, I have a Creek. I cannot hear any difference between that at the same volume and not using it. However, I can boost the volume more with the amp, and it's much better than just using the computer output. At the very least, only because it has a really nice volume knob.
Last edited by kcarlile; 09/10/06 07:03 AM.
