I'm reaally thinking I might go without

This was how virtually all overdubbing was done prior to the late 1960s. The bleed actually sounds great. It's only a problem if there's something in it that you don't want in the final mix. I played with the phase thing but found it to not make much of a difference.

A cardioid is an omni mixed with a figure 8.

also going to try: vocal tracking with AKG open back headphones... compare bleed and singing experience to speaker methods

In my setup, I monitor the vocals pre-stream.  This is a great benefit of the SSL alphalink and the DSP card it can use..  So the vocals come into the A/D and I take a send of that to a bus and add compression and reverb almost EVERY time for every vocalist and send that back to them via the ADAT output to an ADAT-analog converter to an analog headphone system.  This way there is very little latency and the small amount there is, is mainly covered up by the reverb.

I think of it this way.  Vocalists LOVE singing in the shower and places where there are a lot of reflections.  They do this because it's a lot easier to harmonize with their reflections and keep even notes.  I just emulate that by compression and some plate reverb.  

Almost every vocalist I work with loves it and they miss it when I bypass it.

The stream, however, is clean and uncompressed but in mixing I always use 1176+LA2A and some plate delay with reverb, even if it's really low in the mix.  It's funny because I always get "Man, your mic and room sound awesome!" when they don't quite understand that it's the sum of everything and not a single point.

I get that a lot, musicians always confuse how much work and processing actually go into making them sound good with there being a single device that makes them sound good.  I suppose it's just easier for them to believe that a single mic can make them sound like a big star.

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but one of my hesitancies with using a little mixer for headphones is degrading the sound...So no degradation?

Just a mult from the preamp JK.

Gotcha...duh...

Taking one side of phones off an ear fixes that quickly. Like Bob O said, singers tend to sing better without phones and this one ear off method gives me best of both worlds.

Yeah, it's always fun to watch a new singer experience this. At first they keep asking for "more vocal in the cue" till they no longer can hear the music and lose pitch and timing...then they take an ear off and viola'... it's all better 

Only time I ever have problems with phones is doubling a part. Usually on ooo's and ah's, so I just usually mute the part or turn it way down. It's actually kind of hilarious to hear how off pitch you can get when doubling ooo's with hp's on.