Over the last year and a half, I have been paying careful attention to stereo headphones. Before then, I had a kind of ‘who cares’ attitude towards them. I ruled that a fine stereo system at home with excellent speakers and such was all one needs—using headphones was audio blasphemy. But the recent surge in high-quality headphones together with specialized amps for accommodating them wowed me in sound quality, turned me around and caused me to reevaluate my stand.