Bend away! 
I have yet to hear any Meze stuff yet. I hear good things though! Oh and the 4xx are one of my favorites. I modded mine a bit with a comfort strap for the HE400i and Id say they are probably my most comfortable set right now. Made a post about it HERE in case you wanna see what I did.
As for the speaker stuff. I have hand me down speakers (I think they are PSU100 but thats after tearing them apart and doing some google fu) and a Denon amp. Mind you I did just get a AudiotracksAT-500 Stereo amp and its a beast. Gonna have to check out those iLoud Micros too.
Thanks for the response!