Good to remember ... how to tell what sounds better

He just explained why so much audio gear is dreck. They make it that way to have something jump out and get your attention- that's new! I'll buy it! When the truth is the very best most perfect component there ever could be (and does not exist) would do.... nothing. It would simply pass the signal.  

Therefore, the better the component the less the attention grabbing exaggerations and the more listening time it takes to find the flaws.

 First of all, you can only listen, evaluate one item at a time. You can not evaluate bass and treble at exactly the same time. Your brain switches back and forth. Yes, the most pronounced differences will attract your attention first. So you just switch your attention to other facets. 
I A/B high resolution files to vinyl all the time. I mean 24/96 and 24/192 files. In doing so with my friends it is interesting that there is, without discussing it first, 100% agreement as to which is "better." 
A/Bing equipment is more difficult if not down right impossible. If you have a good relationship with a dealer he might allow you to borrow electronics to A/B especially if you are a big ticket buyer. Even so it is very unusual to be able to A/B speakers in your own home and they are the most determinant part of any system. 
Listening to one speaker for a week then listening to another speaker for a week is not a good way to evaluate minor differences between speakers because we accommodate to sound. Switching back and forth is always the best way to evaluate equipment but difficult to arrange. There are situations where there is such a profound difference in performance that there is no question which device is better. Then it becomes a no brainer.   

my takeaway is that as essential as properly conceived and controlled a/b testing (volume equalized etc etc) is to elucidate sq differences among pieces of gear, there is much much more to it than that -- if the objective is to determine which is truly more pleasurable for ownership and longer term ’living with it’

multiple modes of comparison, over short and longer durations, using various pieces of ancillary gear, are necessary to really help us decide and be confident of the choice

the process must be enjoyed

An interesting take on how to determine your own long term preference when quick switching differences are obvious. I know when I had LP playback and digital of many of the same albums and could compare them at length I never did establish a preference. The subtleties he mentions would seem to disappear on digital at times, but then suddenly all be there depending more on my mood and the state of my hearing apparatus. I never noticed over the long run that vinyl ever produced any better subtleties than CD. I did notice that on some records the apparent equalization was much different than the CD, and I preferred the rolled off highs of the LP. I was able to fix that with a digital EQ comparing the spectral contents until they closely matched. That being said, I do think that sometimes a certain amount of noise and distortion can be actually beneficial to the listening experience, allowing our brain to fill in what's missing in ways that might be more pleasing than having everything explicitly clear. Similarly, HD video played back at 60 fps loses a lot of the magic I experience from 24 fps playback. A little film grain and vignette also seems to add something special. 

" mijostyn says: Listening to one speaker for a week then listening to another speaker for a week is not a good way to evaluate minor differences between speakers because we accommodate to sound. Switching back and forth is always the best way to evaluate equipment but difficult to arrange."

How do you compare an apple to a pear?  You can't. The only way to tell what you like best is through long term evaluation playing different kinds of music. After a while you will get both items under comparison to sound their best and be able to decide which one works best for you. But it takes time to do this, playing a few tracks might get you a rough estimate but you really need time to evaluate fully. The industry pretty much agrees that long term evaluation is the tool used to review products.