For tracking, I mostly say "nah", but remember that your headphones are your link to the world. Who knows what you might hear? Lose the watch. A friend of mine was waiting for some studio time and the woman before her was running over trying to hit one cut, so they were hangin'. She hits the part cold, the engineer comes out and says, "That's a keeper. So when are you due?" She says, "What do you mean? He replies,"When are you having your baby?" She says, "I'm not pregnant!" He says, "I'm sorry you have to learn about it this way, but either you've got two hearts, and one of them is going at 180, or I'd say you are expecting." Fetal heart tones at 3 feet! Yeah, I asked- a pair of Neumann KM184's. And yeah, the dumb bunny was in the second trimester and didn't know she was knocked up!
My point is that your cans often are your only tool to hear ambient noise. I'm afraid I don't have a lot of money to spend on a high end headphone amp, but it would make sense if you actually listen to a lot of music through headphones. Hearing clearly helps a lot in tracking, mentally, too. I guess for most project people, myself included, that which does not go to tape is not where the big money goes.-Richie