Looking for some headphone advice

[mldennison]

I have been thinking more about my listening habits for the last few weeks. While I love my home rig, I unfortunately dont have nearly enough time to listen to it as I would like. On the other hand, at work I have plenty of time to listen. The problem is that I am listening through my 10-year old Sony diskman. So my plan is to build up a little rig for the office, nothing crazy, to get a little better experience since I actually end up doing alot of my listening here. I was hoping that some people here could give me some suggestions on what models to look at. Below is what I am looking for:

Current Equipment:
Source: Sony Walkman
Headphones: Sennheiser HD-457
Both of these I plan on keeping for now and just adding to it, although if I like the results, I will probably upgrade down the road.

What I am looking for:
First) Headphone amp. Looking for 2 things (1) inexpensive, hopefully <$150 (2) small, since i dont have a very large desk here at work. I would like to try out a tube amp, but am really just getting started so it could be solid state. Would prefer something available used, to get the best bang for the buck.
Second) If the amplifier goes well, I will probably add a dac later on, and would probably be looking for something of the same type, inexpensive and small. I have seem a bunch of the Audio Alchemy Dac's and they would definately fit the bill.

I know there are a few headphone junkies out there who could help out. I have been doing some reading over at head-fi.org but alot of the stuff there is overkill for me right now. I am not sure how far I will take this but any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

[Shizelbs]

You should be able to find a Musical Fidelity X Can v2 for about $150 used. Thats what I would go with.

If I were to get a DAC, and be using in my office, and wanted a budget minded one, I would get the Corda Headfive. Its the amp that Meier Audio released for the 5th year anniversary of headfi.org. Its got a USB input that you can use for your computer connection.

[mldennison]

Shizelbs,
Thanks for the recommendation. the x-can looks like just about what i would want! do you have any experience with creek products? specifically the creek obh-11, i see a number of people comparing the two and they both come out about the same...

[Shizelbs]

No personal experience, but every thing I've heard and read says that Creek headamps are not the best way to go.

I used a Little Dot II headphone amp. Its a chinese import. It sounds great, but there is a lot of quality control problems. And I was one of the unlucky ones that had one die on me, otherwise an awesome amp. I would love to recommend that one, but alas I cannot.

[mldennison]

okay, well that is good to know. i did see some of the little dot amps on ebay, they do look very nice but you are right, not sure if i want to get into something like that...

thanks again for the recommendations