Right now I run my sound through a MOTU Ultralite, and I've got some Grados SR60s and Audio Technica ATH-M40fs, which combined cost me under $100 (used and on s

Right now I run my sound through a MOTU Ultralite, and I've got some Grados SR60s and Audio Technica ATH-M40fs, which combined cost me under $100 (used and on sale... but you can still get each pair for ~$60 - $70), as well as some rebranded Altec Lansing UHP336. (Other headphones I've owned include the MDR-7506 and DT-770s, and I've frequently used older sets of K240s and HD-280s) That being said, I think the notion that you need $300 head phones + $200 in headphone amplification is absolute garbage. $60 in headphones will get you 80% of the way. My macbooks and my Thinkpads have had more than adequate drive for my headphones, but there's still a small difference when you are driving it with something like a MOTU/digidesign/whatever interface. Most the interfaces I've used were as good or better than the midrange stuff when it came to headphone amplification. One thing I've noticed is that most DIY PCs tend to have much crappier noise performance than my laptops, and the problem is always a million times worse if you use the front panel audio jack. Not sure why, maybe that's why this guy wrote this article.