It looks like I'm going over-budget, but I'm not gonna go Grado-over-budget! 
If you are willing to wait until they go on sale again. These are amazing.
Philips SHP9500S HiFi Precision Stereo Over-ear Headphones (Black).
Right now they are going for 70 bucks. I have seen them for as low as 54 Dollars.
Well - the Grado SR60 used to be available for $60, and that was a bargain! but now they have upgraded the name to SR60e and the price is at $80. i think these are still good values.
If you want to buy the Brainwavz pads, I would only recommend it if you can sew. If you can, go wild. I’ve bought one for one of my girl friends so she could mod it for me(not good at sewing, sorry), and she told me that they sounded so good she kept them for herself.
The JVC HA S680s are a good pair too, but the drivers are tweaked, and you will lose some impact in exchange for more openness.
Also, if you have read the thread, I would advise to burn in the JVC HA S400/S500/S680 AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.
The reason for this is because having a carbon nanotube diaphragm makes it much harder for it to flex initially, limiting its sound characteristics.
They are the only headphones which benefit heavily, and even at all, from heavy burn in. Starting at 10 hours is a good start, but going to 100 hours continuous 90% sound would be your best bet while not going overboard, which is what I did. Made the sound so much better all around.
Finally, as you have probably seen in the S500 thread, I would recommend doing some of the mods over there, like using tissues as dampeners, making the ear pads wider for a better sound stage, and more bass.
After I had done all these mods, I literally got the best headphones I have ever had! That would include thicker ear pads, 100 hour burn in, sock dampening the drivers, and widening the ear pads.
It was even on par the Audio Technica M50Xs, and close to the Senheiser HD598Cs! These last ones did one thing much better though: they were much more comfortable than the stock headphones. But the thicker ear pads made it better, but not as good, which is expected from on ear headphones compared to over ears.
I must have done an incorrect search, because $80 is very reasonable compared to what I saw earlier. 
Thanks for the detailed reply.
IIRC, the JVC HA-S680s work great with Brainwavz pads, without the need for sewing, which is what I'm looking for.
I'll be sure to burn in the headphones. 
their higher end models do go up to a few thousand 
I had a fiio e6 and a5. They are great. Just recently blew some cash on a Schiit Magni 3; ohh boy does it get loud and stay clean. :smiling_imp:
JVC HA-S500 says the headphones are rated for 1W @ 32ohms. Thats impressive if they dont distort towards max power.
The fiio e6 says it can push about 150mW. So if you want full power a bigger amp might be nice to have eventually, but I doubt it would be necessary for low ohm headphones; unless you really want to bang your head and jam out.
I think the FiiO E6 is sufficient.
I don't want any more hearing loss than comes naturally with old age. 
The JVC HA S500 can handle a beating easily.
Alright, I burned them in for more than the recommended 48 hours...
(I don't have anything good to compare these to except iLuv iEP322 IEMs.)
The JVC stock ear pads are atrocious, but the Brainwavz ear pads are excellent.
The sound quality is very nice, the bass is awesome, and the noise isolation is extremely good.
I'm a happy raccoon!