It’s somewhat ironic that the first deal I saw after posting this thread was for an Arya, which I was expecting to be the hardest to find and the least suitable for me. It really opened my eyes, particularly to the importance of good treble. I mentioned some other things in the Arya thread:
In general, even though it’s more of a generalist than I thought, it’s still a bit too specialist to have as my highest-end headphone.
I’m on the fence about hunting for a used HeKv2, as I wonder if the small reduction in the treble will make it more suitable for parts of my library where I find the Arya a tiny bit “piercing”. I also occasionally found the mid bass a little lacking and the HeKv2 looks like it has a bit more there.
At the moment, I’m leaning towards trying other headphones on the list. I’ll see what LCD deals come up after the Arya return is processed, and add the 2F to that list. The other headphones don’t seem to fit the criteria I mentioned already, unfortunately. I think I’ll put the Aeon 2 idea on hold for now as the Arya showed me that I really need an open headphone in my collection.