Headphone dilemna....seeking advice..

I liked my Grado sr125 headphones but they were cheaply constructed and finally the left channel has gone kaput. I won't buy another Grado unless it is close to free. I have been using a Musical Fidelity V2 headphone amp and it sounds very nice.

I am considering the akg k501 headphone for price mostly and some reviews say it sounds pretty good when driven with a good head amp. Other phone in the running is the venerable sennheiser hd 600 but I don't like the physical design as much as the more traditional looking akg.

Now, having said that I see that if I could get 175 out of my head amp I could take the money I would have spent on akg and buy a used Stax system for a few hundred bux more. There is a Stax 4040 tube driver system with phones for 925/bo right now on audiogon.

Can anybody comment on my dilemna? Thing that concerns me about Stax is long term reliability, repair costs, and the fact that those phones look awful damned big and it might be hard to rest one's head on a pillow while listening to the phones.