[kwilkins]

I own the Susvara and Utopia, and am of the opinion that the HiFiMan cans are sonically superior to the Utopia pretty much regardless of musical genre. I only really keep the Utopia for traveling or other situations where I don't have a high-powered amp available. The Utopia are also more durably built.

I'm also of the opinion that the Utopia is clearly superior to any of the Stellia, HD800S, or MDR Z1R. Although I thought the SONY had a fun signature, I just found it to be too bulky and rather overpriced at $2K. The Stellia and HD800S were both big disappointments based on my expectations. Of course, as someone noted above, audio equipment is so subjective that my opinion may be worthless to you.

I would recommend perhaps just listening to music on the various headphones and seeing which ones you start reaching for the most over time since you don't seem to be making progress with the A/B testing. Also, your budget appears ample, so it doesn't seem you're under pressure to sell off any of the equipment you've acquired. Therefore, why rush things?

Thanks for your recommendations and sharing your experience. I agree the Stellia, HD800S and MDR Z1R are a league below the HiFiman cans and the Utopia. I'm going to keep the Stellia because there are times I need a closed back headphone due to proximity to others.

I will eventually sell off a fair amount of my gear but am in no rush. I'm just in the process of narrowing down what I want to keep and trying to learn which genre's of music I like best with which gear.