well my budget for headphones went from $40 when I purchased some Koss portaPro's, to $80 when I purchased my Grado SR-80's....and might some day inflate to maybe $250 or so, to go with the SR-325i's....if I can get a deal on them.

Ya I have considered headphone amps. Though honestly my CD player's headphone jack sounds very good. About the volume control thing. You can also get a headphone extension and use a remote! Maybe your preamp doesn't use a remote...

I watch Grado's headphone amps that I see on ebay. If one went cheap enough I would consider it. I have listened to my phones over my brother Antique Sound Labs tube headphone amp and wasn't that impressed (it was $250 from Audio Advisor). I wanted to listen to a Creek one, along with the Grado one at a shop, to see if it really is an improvement, but honestly I would need to be able to bring it home, to do a comparision with my own gear. Audio Advisor has a money back guarantee. Maybe this summer I will get the Creek I was looking at and see if I like it.

I think if anyone's budget allows them to spend $3,000 on a set of cans.......they must have a lot of money!