Audio experience and audio science goes hand in hand...
Subjectivity and objectivity must always be correlated with the subjectivity being the pilot...
It is true about electronic design of Dac, amplifier, or speaker...
But it is way more evident in acoustic/psycho-acoustic science which is mostly experiments and not only theoretical ...
We must learn and only may learn to listen by acoustic experiments in our own room NOT by buying gear and plugging it in a wall by the way....It make me smile when people claim that they listen to 50 amplifiers then they know....They know amplifiers then not sound experience which is an acoustical /psycho-acoustical experience ....Imaging, dynamic, soundstage, LEV/ASW ratio etc bass, timbre perception, all these cues we must learn to control them in our room , nevermind the gear if it is basically an already well chosen one to begin with ...
Anyway nobody know the real peak working potential of their audio system if the room is not well controlled to serve it optimally... Especially true in small room because of the way worked reflections and reverberation time...
It is possible with speakers to create an intimacy like in headphone and with a sound filling the room... I know because i did it... No headphone i ever used (8) can rival a well controlled room...
The Op is wise...
I solidly embrace both camps. Hard science gets us close, then the loosening of emotions in guiding us home.