I find the 16's boomy as well, it's not just us being spoiled, I really thought it was a bit "much". I think you may want to look into the JH13.. thats why I got them. That being said I have a set of 8A's and they're on the warm side too but I really do like that sound signature. If you're looking for that energetic presentation without a lot of boomyness or midrange fluff you'll want to look at the UE Ref. ES5, or JH13. I've had experience with all of them, JH13's being the most since I wear them at least 2 hours a day and I sleep with them in.
Plenty of options but the asian house sound would appear to be on the warm side, which they'd call smooth. It's great if thats your thing but from what you are trying to get a really solid baseline with no distractions, I'd say the UE Reference which I have demo'ed so many times at local headphone meets is really, really neutral. It's not boring per se, but even the UE16 or whatever their flagship is at this point has a lot of snap compared to the UE's neutrality. Having dealt with their customer service for UE10 refits a long time ago, if the same people are working for them, their service is really industry leading.
Noble was very prompt and polite in their e-mails to me too and I think when ordering a made-to-order product with a lot of money downrange, it's very important to have someone on the other end to bug when stuff goes wrong, or when you want to pay them more money