I guess what I don't get is that, if using the Oratory 1990, for the HD700 it pretty much corrects all tonal inaccuracies that are present with stock tuning without really losing any of the technicalities IMO.I actually loved my HD700, still have them, just not use them all the time. However I am not treble sensitive, and appear to be the "anti audiophile" in general taste (not sensitive to treble in any way or fashion, do not need or love boosted bass.) Im addition, I bought them new when they were starting to fade them out of production, so I did not ever pay $999.00 (the initial pricing was indeed outrageous). I think I paid $479 locally for a new one, then a few months later it was discontinued.
I do understand why some dislike it, but I am very "tuning-tolerant", and it takes more than a few peaks or valleys to offend me. How it sounds overall is more important, though I do watch the measurement graphs for reference.
In general I dislike more bassy and muddy over trebley headphones/earphones, and upper mids do not bother me whatsoever (again, I do go against the common audiophile "good taste" on this regard.) That is how I imagined the Maria II would be fine by me, but it is just *too expensive* for me to even consider them, as I do have other earphones that could more or less fill that niche as described above.
I would imagine, because of the physical setup of the buds, the Maria II could be much the same way. I am super sensitive to the overemphasized presence region, but that might also come down to the type of music I listen to. Oh to be "tuning tolerant" as you say.
I gave up being a bass-head many years ago. Nowadays I can tolerate boosted bass (and even want it sometimes to a point in an audiophile way), but since getting my first planar headphones, I crave the texture that can be had over the overexaggerated/boomy and muddy bass that the masses has come to love with the lower quality .mp3 age.
I have read somewhere that some manufacturers actually tune their headphones/IEMs specially to accommodate that distorted bass that you get from low quality files. This became the norm, and that is what the masses (me included a long time ago) think is accurate. I had a fella', here on the forum, argue with me saying "bass is meant to be felt, not heard". A true bass-head to be sure, but he was arguing about a set that had obvious muddy, bloated bass with very little to no texture at all. I let it go, but you get what I am saying....