huskerfan:
I did not read any of the thread except your question. The absolutely correct answer is: It depends.
I see a question mark forming in the ether. Your question and my answer are not very responsive.
"Best" is not a useful word without explanation. Best quality of machine regardless of its usefulness -- for example, 60 x 120 Zeiss ship's observation binocular weighs about 40 pounds. Nice optics though.
What do you want to do with the binocular? I expect several things, but what?
Where do you intend to use them? Heavy binocular at 12,000 feet of altitude while backpacking is, perhaps, not the best idea.
Is a binocular sufficient, or do you require integrated compass or mil scale range finder, or infrared detector, or special optical shielding, and so on.
I'm not trying to give you a hard time. I'm attempting to prevent you from investing in a superb product that is not satisfactory for your usage.
After owning, in many magnifications, Leitz Trinovids, Zeiss-Jena 7x40 EDFs, I now use exclusively Zeiss 8x30 B/GA IFs with F2 range finder.
This may not be close to what you need, but I wasted thousands upon thousands of dollars on first-quality binoculars before I understood what I wanted MY binocular to do -- and why.
