Headphones for sound control

Sure, go for it (headphones). I think you would be remiss to not explore planar-dynamics and electrostats - though planars are generally harder to drive, and electrostats even require their own special dedicated amplifiers (that you can't use for anything else!). I love moving coils in cartidges and speakers, but in headphones it’s slapping this mass around (coil glued to a former glued to a diaphragm) right atop your ears, and (IMO) they tend to produce far more listening fatigue and danger at higher volumes. Also, even amongst other moving coils, I never liked Sennheiser 800’s series. The older 580 / 600 / 650 series has far better tonality, if a bit less detail.

@dbphd I believe you are in Santa Barbara. Make the 20 minute drive to Ventura, California and listen to the best headphones in the world, the RAAL Immanis, RAAL Magna, RAAL SR1b, and CA-1a. Danny Mckinney at RAAL will help you

Requisite Audio | High-End Audio For Creators & Connosouirs

You could use your Arye amp(s) with these phones. Not the headphone driver, the speaker output.

There is a guy in Santa Barbara selling the CA-1a for about $1100 it is the worse of the RAAL lineup but compared to other non-RAAL headphones very competitive. I had the CA-1a but gave it to a family member. The guy selling is saving up for the Immanis, which I may also get at the end of the year.

I use the SR1a earphones which are like 2-channel speakers, not like headphones. The Immanis, Magna, and CA-1a are like headphones.

@dbphd I just invented something for exactly this problem. It’s called a musical cocoon. Go to Musicalcocoon.com and check out my website I’d love to build a set for you. They sound amazing as if the whole room is full of sound but when you get up and walk 10 feet away you can barely hear them it’s absolutely amazing. I Have filed for a utility Pat and I’m now patent pending. If you’re anywhere near Cleveland Ohio I’m working on putting together a small showroom. Let me know what you think I’d be happy to help you out. If they don’t work like I say they do you can send them back

I would think that we are in agreement that a stand alone headphone amp would be superior to the built in Ayre.

The real question is whether the McIntosh headphone amp is worth the money?

Of course, maybe you have a thing for black glass and blue lights.

I have very little experience with headphones for music.  My experience with McIntosh was with the MC 60s, the standard in psychoacoustic labs.  As a grad student I did calibrate and match TDH 39s, another lab standard at the time, and served in lots of binaural signal detection experiments using the phones I had matched.