A bonanza of ultimate headphones and headphone gear (pictures)

The latest version of the Grado PS1000 headphones have mirror-finished earcups. These beauties are made in my hometown, Brooklyn, N.Y.!

Logitech Ultimate Ears Personal Reference Monitor in-ear headphones are a new twist on custom-molded to your ears 'phones. Before you buy, you get to fine-tune their sound to taste.

Dan Clark tweaks and modifies Fostex headphones and sells his Mad Dog headphones direct. I'll review his handiwork soon.

The HD 800s are expensive, but hugely popular with the headphone cognoscenti.

The tiny AudioQuest Dragonfly USB digital-to-analog converter/headphone amplifier (review to come).

Red Wine Audio's Vinnie Rossi holding the latest version of his battery-powered, vacuum-tube Corvina home headphone amp. I reviewed the still-available basic Corvina, which is one of my reference amps.

Hifiman's Fang Bian showed a prototype of his upcoming high-resolution, up-to-96-kHz/24-bit, portable HM-901 music player (review to come).

Justin Wilson sells headphone amps, and his big Blue Hawaii amp running a set of transparent Stax SR 009 electrostatic headphones made the best sound I've heard in a long while.

Head-Fi is a headphone forum, and its founder, Jude Mansilla is a great guy, a total gearhead, and he's always up on the latest headphone news.

The Stax SR-009 electrostatic headphones are made in Japan, and they're big, but supercomfy. The detailing of the design and metalwork are simply the best money can buy.

I recently heard the Beyerdynamic T 90 open-back headphones for the first time. It's a very precise, very accurate-sounding headphone, and I hope to review it soon.