Also would be nice to know what chain you plan to run things on as that could heavily influence what makes sense to consider and what doesn’t imo.
I’d personally rather have a th900 ltd or d9200 over a verite closed most of the time, and also better value used (although vc prices have gotten a lot more reasonable in the past few years). Also think it depends on what you plan to drive the headphones with chain wise, think the fostex/denons can scale better than the zmf. Given what’s been mentioned in the initial post I think that either the denon/fostex or a verite closed would be a solid fit for what you want imo, although my personal preference especially considering value would likely be toward the fostex/denon. (not saying that the th900 ltd or 9200 are the same btw, just saying they’re similar goals and similar ish sound. Denon tends to focus on being a bit more organic and natural with a bit of a midrange focus whereas the fostex is a bit more fun and direct and a bit more mildly v shaped)
I will say that the fostex and denon leak more sound than the verite closed so not as isolating, but they’re also less bulky, in terms of comfort I’d say the denon is more comfy than fostex and on par with the comfort for the verite, although none of them really stood out to me in that regard, but figured I’d mention it.
In terms of other options, I’d skip the 800/s unless you have a super warm chain if you’re looking for something a bit tilted more toward the lower ranges, but it does fulfill some of the things you’re looking for, so if you don’t mind something a bit more on the brighter and dryer side of things than I think it could be a good pick, although I do think that if you aren’t into a massive stage that’s one of it’s main party tricks/selling points. Instead, I’d actually suggest an audio technica adx5k which is pretty neutral and I think would check more boxes than the 800s for what you want, although wouldn’t consider either warm
On the audeze side of things I’d actually consider an lcd 24 instead of a lcd 4z if you can find one of those used, it’s a bit warmer and a bit more full in the mids, imo more balanced and refined tuning and a hair better technical performance, although not as impactful in the bass as the 4z and less forward, but the 24 imo sounds like it’s a bit closer to your goals than the 4z is, but both nice headphones.
I’d personally skip the meze on the value front unless you can find quite a good deal on them, although I’ve only heard the empy and not the elite so perhaps they’ve brought it more technically up to snuff for the price which I thought the empy was lacking in, but signature wise it’s likely potentially appealing, but I think it falls short on a lot of things like dynamics, imaging, detail, etc
If you like your clear and want a direct upgrade to that, a focal utopia is an excellent value used these days, although you’re really going to want to make sure you have the chain to back those up for them to be worthwhile, and you might want to lean them to be a bit more on the warmer sweeter and more relaxed side of things that way
I guess another alternative could be the abyss diana v2, worth looking into for what you’re after imo
There’s not really many pretty high end closed backs worth their salt imo, one I can think of that I personally really like is the audio technica awkt but it’s pretty picky when it comes to chain and it’s on the brighter and a bit leaner side of things, not sure if it would be the best bet. There’s the aforementioned stellia but I personally wasn’t that big of a fan of it, the denon/fostex or zmf would be a safer pick for what you’re after there imo
All this being said, are you mainly looking for something different for a collection or looking to an upgrade from something like you’re hek? Since I think some of these aren’t going to be on the same tier of performance as the hek will be (assuming the hek and others mentioned aren’t gimped by chain)
