Very good deal here. May I ask what you upgraded to?

Great price, fast shipping and the product was just as described. Highly recommended seller!

I love my Q5s TC and I use it all the time when I'm working from a coffee shop, mostly to drive a pair of DCA Aeon 2. It sounds great. However, my desktop setup blows it away. That said, the Q5s is a fraction of the cost and it still sounds very good. So it depends on what you value most.

The type of glass frames certainly makes a difference as well. I couldn't get completely comfortable with glasses on after a while no matter what I tried, though. I even tried a couple of frames that used straps rather than legs to stay in place but it would still annoy me after a while. I ended...

I haven't had any issues with my VC, even though I bought them used. That said, I don't use them every single day. I use my DCA Ether 2 more often purely because of their comfort. The VC are comfortable but it's hard to beat the super light weightness of the Ether 2. I couldn't speak to the...

Yes and yes. And you wouldn't be modifying the headphone. ZMF sells all these pads so you can swap them to your preference. In fact, when you order the headphones from ZMF you get to choose 3 pairs of pads of your choice that are included with your purchase. The ZMF VC are one of the best...

Hmm, in that case the only one I can think of at the moment, which would be over budget unless you find it used and even then probably still a little bit over budget, would be the ZMF Verite Closed. One big advantage with this pair is that you can customize the sound very noticeable by pad...

Where's comfort in your list of priorities? Do you have a weight limit you would like to stay under?

What's your budget? Same as op?

I actually have the ZMF VC and I agree that it's also a good choice, especially because there are so many pad options. Some might not work well with glasses, such as the BE2 pads but others like the Suede Eikon pads, which are soft thick bois, do better.

Since you're focusing more on punch/slam and detail retrieval over soundstage, I say go with one of the Focal's. I own or have owned various models from ZMF, DCA, Hifiman, Beyerdynamic, Focal and other brands, including less popular brands like Gold Planar. Out of all of the ones I've listened...

I agree with DCA Aeon working well with glasses. The Aeon Noir would be a good choice but if you want a TOTL headphone then look at the DCA Stealth.

What kind of mod do you have on your GL2000's?

The good thing about the Soloist is that you can modify the sound somewhat by rolling opamps. The Soloist definitely slams. I also used to have the A90 (which I enjoyed) and I would say there's a lot more separation on the Soloist. A big difference to me coming from the A90 to the Soloist was...

By "soft" do you mean it doesn't have a lot of power (ie. Volume doesn't go very high) or do you mean dynamics or what?