Yea, I've always loved a sort of far out degree of variety. Full disclosure, I also don't really care about chasing a perceived, perfect target. If it sounds good to me, I'm more than happy.

I even love lots of wonky things like Koss KPH30i, Porta, Esp-950, Original Grado SR60, PS500, etc., stuff I think lots of people would turn their noses up at.

Years ago, one of my many favourite pairs use to be the original closed back AKG K550 with a very particular Reel to Reel amp repurposed to act as a powerful headphone tube amp on digital sources. To me, it was just utter magic. So much coloration of clean audio signal, but just blooming, full-bodied and expansive sounding.

I'm also into all the HD6XX and R70x stuff which I guess are popular but less purist focused. The tonality crowd which I'd like to find more of.

I've heard masses of audiophile headphones over a couple of decades and owned/heard loads of things people would think of as more 'accurate' but at the end of the day, I still like variety and exploring literally everything. Same with audiophile home stereo equipment and vintage audio.

I admit I personally found the flagship market a bit stuffy and dull this round, way more than what felt like a big variety in the past. Although I haven't heard them all, so I shouldn't generalize fully. It's just, are they really going to trounce previous $1000 pairs with these $5000 sets? I feel like it's very incremental gains and personal taste more so at this point. But I'm open to other viewpoints and experiences.

I was fairly impressed by the Lower tier Sundara at their price point, but again the gains from last generation didn't really pop out that obviously to me. Maybe if I AB them or spent more IME with them it would more. But tuning/tonality wise they didn't necessarily have a distinct personality I'd jump on either, very nice, but not something that grabbed me.

That's why I'm curious what others feel about it. I probably shouldn't have invoked the flagships because that's not really what I'm after. It's more so, what do people personally feel was a step forward for them, even if it's something highly subjective and personally interesting.

Are there some things you have come across on the last 6 years (or any time) you you really love? I'd love to hear about anything!