@JohnK, thanks for the recommendation and that awesome link. You are correct about wire length.

@terzaghi, I'm not sure I completely understand, but I'll definitely give it a try w/out an equalizer! I'd rather not spend the money; the only concern I have is shaping the audio around the particular type of music. I have a pair of Sennheiser pro-sumer grade headphones, and I definitely used an EQ with them. My iphone, which will be my source for digital music, does not have an equalizer (much to my annoyance).