That's just about my take. Your spot on in pointing out that it's an undefined term, so the benefits of using it are tied to your familiarity with the user's preferences I guess.
Judging from the Verité alone I would interpret this to mean their heavy timbre effect, and possibly the overall bokeh presentation I found with that model. Neither of which I’ve experience from any other headphone, including Fostex. Though modders may feel differently.
I see it as the collection of headphones that are largely different in a similar way compared to other collection of headphones. I find all new-ish hifiman have a ballpark sound and quite distinct to the ZMF ones or Audeze etc.
I do like hifiman and I like most of them(not enough to buy), I don't like ZMF, don't really care about audeze. Might be tuning based on the company owner's preference.
Full bass with some rumble, timbre and thump but not one-notey; mids are "golden" (slightly warm, full and very slightly soft) as a result of the bass presence & tuning; treble is defined and present but does not dominate or extend much into sibilance or pierce; very little air. Choice of pads affects how neutral or 'golden' the sound is; choice of wood affects speed to a minimal degree.
Tendency to lay bass/mids on thick, cup reverb, some degree of "Japanese." More of a timbre thing for me; ZMFs sound nothing like my Focals from a timbre standpoint alone.
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