I aimed to ectasy when sound disapear and only music stay...
But it takes me 10 years to reach it...
There is simple evident problem any audio forums can help to cure...
But the hardest factors to solve is not so much a mere specific evident problem , but a tree of UNDETECTED problems because you cannot hear them or you cannot think about them anyway because they are not perceived and then you cannot even think about what to do first to optimize what seems to be an already good system without problem anyway... Most people stay there happy with what they own as it is right out of the box and it is OK...
The only way i learned myself was by systematic listening experiments... A lot of them... Now i am in music listening with no more evident sound problem, and even if we can always improve for sure the sound, i am too deep in music ectasy to bother me with sound...But it takes me 10 years of buying gear to stumble on the right S.Q./price ratio gear ... And 2 years of intense acoustic experiments and many experiments in the mechanical , and electrical dimensions...
Buying will never replace experiments listening experiments , around the basic mechanical, electrical and acoustical dimensions...Because optimization is not mere problem solving , it is experimenting with our ears... Audio experience is complex problems way over simple physics and engineeering, because psycho-acoustic play half the tune so to speak ...
The goal in audio for me is "immersiveness"... The way the listener is engulfed acoustically in the music/sound experience in 3-D with speakers and now in the last year with headphone because i lost my dedicated homemade acoustic room ...
I just started a thread about "immersiveness" because most people dont know how to describe it to begin with and it is hard to describe anyway and to put all conditions together , then perhaps i will learn new things from others experiences ... 😊
In a word nobody can know if their system is good and more than just good without listening experiments ... Comparisons with other gear in other rooms help to for sure... But it is not enought at all... It is why most people conditioned by marketing judge sound experience by the price tag...It is way more difficult to experiments with what we already own than to just buying new costly upgrade ... But even gear upgrades are in need of listening experiments for the necessary optimization... And upgrade do not replace basic mechanical, electrical and acoustic facts and experiments...
It is my experience...