I humbly thank everyone for providing me your input and wisdom - I don't take it for granted and appreciate it. As we all know, going round playing guitars during the Corona outbreak is less than ideal, but I don't want to wait 1, 2 or 4 months to get a good quality guitar at home. I don't have enough patience for that! :-)
Infinite choice: hey, I wish I was moved back to a 60-ies USSR setting there there only was one choice: "Here, guitar!" :-) Then again, we would have to settle for the Lada of guitars... ;-)
Context: I covered some of this in a separate thread, but basically I'm coming back to playing guitar after a +25 yrs break. I just cleaned up and gave my old Ibanez Dread to my son. I don't play in bands, I won't play in concerts or plugged in for that matter - heck, not even on YouTube. I want a US made guitar of superior quality, craftsmanship and tonal quality, but I don't necessarily want to go over the $3,000 mark (even that much of guitar is to cast your pearls before swines (me)). I won't build a dedicated studio/musicroom, I'll play my house in Virginia, entertain (?) my family, and a mix of fingerpicking, flat-picking and strumming. I'm 6'1"/185cm so I can easily handle a Dread but I'm not sure I truly need the boom, nor is it as comfortable if you are sitting in the sofa playing away, at least that is the common wisdom.
Reality check: Yes, I understand that there is no such thing as a perfect guitar, and ideally one would have a Jumbo, a small 12-fret, a classic Spanish guitar, Dreads in various woods, etc. I'm trying to avoid that. I don't want to become a guitar collector. I just want to buy one really good guitar that I will enjoy and have fun playing. In reality, any sound differences between a hog or rosewood Dread, or Dread and OM, will all disappear at home because I plan to only play one guitar.
I saw this thread with an amber D-41
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=575944 what a machine, but I'm sober/reasonable enough to realize that this would probably be too much of a guitar for me, but I do subscribe to the theory that a D-series sound differently and it is more than looks. I recently played a D-41 and D-35 side-by-side (along with a J-45 and regular OM) and the D-41 was clearly the most compelling in terms overtones, balance, volume, sustain, etc. I sort of read/heard that it takes a lot longer to make a D-series instrument and they receive a different level of attention than your regular standard series Martins? Who knows - perhaps I am less wishy-washy that I sound, I just have to get over the mental hurdle of dropping +$3,500 on a D-41 and get it over with.
Sorry for the rant, if you put a quarter in me I ramble on... ;-)