Mule Deer. About 15 years ago, I went into a "bird store" and looked thru the binoculars they had in stock. There was one that I looked thru that gave me that "WOW" we hear about. It was the Pentax you talked about in your first post. I have not looked thru any since that gave me the same view of things. My eyesight isn't great, which may have an effect on how I view things thru binoculars, but the majority I have looked thru seem very similar (really nice overall with nothing to complain about). I attribute this to a large extent to the fact that the great influx in new optics companies has caused the glass makers to create much better glass on the whole in recent years. Before, there were cheap binoculars and really good binoculars with not a lot of overlap. Since Zen Ray and so many others hit the market, there is a very fuzzy line separating good and very good optics and prices generally have lowered. A quality optic that would sell for $1000 if manufactured in Europe can sell for a fraction of that if made in China. And if quality control is held to a high level, the finished product can be of equal quality as well.
I wish that I could have afforded the Pentax back in the day as I still remember the feeling looking thru them, but there are so many really good binoculars today I am sure I can find another "wow" binocular and probably at a much lower price.
