The problem is too many people make this way harder than it has to be. A lot of people listen for a lot of different things. For me it’s simple - I listen for clarity/resolution/detail - basically, do I hear things I’ve never picked up or heard before and is it more intelligible? So to dohanian’s point, chocolate vs vanilla = Speakers are the instrument - do you want a Taylor, Martin, Gibson etc. guitar? Find the speaker that tonally appeals to you. Now, who do you want playing your instrument - your Electronics? If you liked the Taylor guitar and handed that same guitar to Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Chet Atkins, it’s going to sound very different, but for one of those guys, that guitar is just going sound right with them playing it. So tubes, or solid state? Yes! One will be more right and “Does it get out of the way” - or does it add or take away from what you’ve heard in that recording you’ve listened to a 1000 times? There in lies your answer - yes it’s better or no it’s not - because it certainly will without a doubt be different one way or another, however, different doesn’t always mean better or worse, but like I said, there is a synergy that can happen with Electronics and Speakers that can just be great and then you should know. That’s also why it’s important to pick well recorded music to audition with because then understanding flaws in recordings of music you truly like to listen to becomes easier to discern. The Music has been mixed, mastered. EQ’d, engineered and produced, so the better your Electronics/Speakers are, the more they show differences in those recordings - you’re never Improving the signal with anything, you’ only making it less bad and I think once everyone understands that, then the differences between good and bad become a lot clearer!
