@cmariner1 Robert Harley's well-known Complete Guide to High End Audio provides some very sensible approaches and considerations to purchasing components or a complete system. He outlines very well the role that specs, reviews, speaker/amp synergy, dealers, listening, and individual needs/tastes play in making good decisions. The reality is that there are a myriad of considerations that all do matter - some more than others. I suggest starting with a guide like this and certainly not getting bullied into taking advice from "some dude" on the internet who publicly dresses you down by concluding:
In short your "hypothesis" to the extent we can glorify it as such, bears at best a tenuous relationship with reality.