I heard the 968s at HE2006 in June. Now they are one of my top three replacement choices that I want to audition further. If I do ended up using the 968s, I am planning on trying biamping out using the Pass Aleph Os and Pass 350.5. (Just because I have both amps around)
Good choice with the Consonance amp. I have two of their headphone amps, similar sound per your description above, but I listen mostly to jazz.
FrankC