Unfortunate hiccup, classily resolved.
An unfortunate coincidence of timing during checkout led to me not being able to receive my chosen headphones for quite some time. While we were sorting it out, Alan and the team were - as always - a delight to work with. Eventually they had to pivot and come up with a new solution and in a matter of days my order was fulfilled. It may have taken a while to get there, but in the meanwhile communication was both thorough and thoroughly pleasant. Working with headphones.com isn't like buying from a big box store, it's like buying from a mate who happens to also run a headphone business... Thank you folks!