Stephen, thank you. Looks like our impressions are very similar so it's not just my ears. Thanks for the suggestions on the music, funny that 3 out 5 you suggested were on my initial impression list already.
I guess we also have a similar taste in music.
I was reflecting back over the years trying to come up with the equivalent of what I am hearing today through the Focal Utopia/Bryston BHA-1/Schiit Gungnir and nothing really quite compares to even my high end audio/theater setup.
One particular track that came to mind was Nils Lofgren "Keith Don't Go". It is a great track to evaluate the speed and grip of an amplifier on the speakers and also the resolution of any system. The lightning speed transients of Nils guitar playing will ultimately reveal if the speakers and the rest of your system can convey the sense of speed and all the rich harmonic overtones present on this recording.
I always thought my Sonus Faber Elipsa driven by Bryston amps in a full treated acoustic room sounded insanely good. Except that the Focal Utopia/Bryston BHA-1/Schiit Gungnir effortlessly showed me that I have not heard it the way it really is.
Since Gungnir is part of the equation, I have to give it credit here for decoding every last ounce of information buried in the bits. The guitar strings shimmer and sizzle with rich harmonic overtones, layer after layer and the transients are conveyed with speed and accuracy as the tempo builds towards the latter part of the song while keeping everything in a congruent whole and without turning into jello. I could not believe how much of this song was still left to discover after what I thought was a room and gear that was beyond the typical setup one may encounter in a home environment if it is not a dedicated listening room.
I easily had $20k worth of ASC treatments, $20k speakers, probably close to $20k or more in gear for the 2 channel not to mention the rest of the amps and speakers for surrounds... and countless hours spent building out the theater with a double layers drywall separated and damped with ASC product designed for that purpose...
Here I sit in awe and am humbled all that can easily be beaten, no, spanked actually by a $4k pair of headphones, $2K headphone amp and a $1250 outboard DAC.
Now one can probably understand why I am not in a hurry to build another system in my new place.
Here is my Sonus Faber theater from back in the day before I went to an all Wilson Audio setup.
https://youtu.be/a3i_DETaCg0