I don’t disagree with you, but I guess I see them as unforgiving rather than inherently bright. I’m not deaf, I hear the ‘brightness’ people are referring to, but I think it is usually attributable to subpar source material. When appropriately amped and playing well recorded music, I find them to be warm and engaging. The fangs only come out for me on highly compressed recordings, usually of hard rock or top 40 pop - neither of which is my usual fare. I currently own two other headphones that were similarly priced at one time or another - HE 560s and Elears - and I like them all equally well. Yes, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but I would not say that any one is universally better than the other two. That being said, I get defensive about the 700s, simply because they were so unfairly (IMO) reviled by so many. I couldn’t justify the price of admission for 800s, but I always felt like the 700s got me most of the way there for about a third of the cost. They remain the only headphones that I have ever missed enough to buy again after selling my first pair.