Bought these Sennheiser HD-580 headphones from amazon (had 25 dollar gift certificate), so came out to about $105 with free shipping. I tried it at work and they sound decent, but then read about how only with a headphone amp will the great sound become apparent.

So made an impulse buy of sorts (well, i did do my research) and decided to splurge on a Headroom Total Bithead headphone amp (portable). This can be powered by computer’s USB port or by 4 AAA batteries. Only heard nice things about this amp, so I don’t have buyer’s remorse yet. The other option was to build my own amp (cmoy) out of a tin container and some parts from radio shack, but decided it wasn’t worth the time.