That may well be on brand for the egg-shaped stealths, then. I've only tried the non-stealth Arya and HE1000 V2 myself, which I don't find grating in the slightest. (Although I'm sure some people do.) But the HE1000SE is reportedly a fair amount spicier.

"They kind of hurt" doesn't inspire a lot of confidence! Could you tell if the treble was uniformly bright, like on the HE1000? Or did there seem to be any narrow peaks?

Yours is one of the few setups I've ever seen in which the HD800 actually looks pretty stylish, although some of that may be down to the black and white. :P

I maintain that an EQed HD800 for anything less than $800 is the best value proposition in all of audiophilia, once you amortize the cost across the 10 to 20 years that the bugger is likely to last you.