further thoughts.
Immersion, your enthusiasm and energy is very obvious in all your posts, these are qualities that everyone on the forum appreciates and will happily support in discussion and with any advice they can muster from their own experience.
Your commitment and focus to your own vision is also very clear. Again I believe these are qualities also valued here, especially as many of us will have already needed to show similar level of commitment to bring into reality that which we have dreamt of manifesting, in whichever field of endeavour is important to us.
A couple of years ago I spent (for me) a considerable sum on a pair of headphones for both listening and monitoring purposes. I always appreciate the increase in quality that improvements in my gear bring. But for me having the 'best' equipment is a dream and the challenge is making the best of what I actually have.
I think you would find that no one here looks down on good equipment....(please correct me everyone else if I am wrong....)
You come across as very 'driven', and this creates a feel to your language that comes across as an attack because you appear to allow no other viewpoint than your own - which makes it very hard to have an open discussion, considering pros and cons, ups and downs. It makes people feel that if you already think you have the answers, why bother asking the question and then belittle the answers that people give you.
I find my ears are the best equipment I have and that no gadget of any form actually recreates the sounds I hear when I am in a natural environment, such as deep in the forest, where there are few intrusions of 'human sounds'.
My most used piece of equipment? The drummers stool I sit on when in the studio - it is an essential part of every recording I have made and at £30 or so was a bargain.
One thing I have not understood from your posts is that you are focussed on 'clear' and 'true' sound - but you did mention that you like to "color and saturate sound, driving transformers hard, create harmonics etc" - how do you relate these 2 things as they appear contradictory at first read.