When a reviewer writes that "a certain piece of gear is more musical,"
"More musical" means an upgrade of gear or /and upgrade of room acoustics...
If you own atmasphere top amplifier for example which is designed in account of some psychoacoustics facts, then you may try to upgrade instead of his already TOP amplifier a low cost speakers to a better one , but if your speakers are relatively good already BEFORE upgrading, it is better to improve the room ...
One piece of Gear upgrade at some level of price toward another gear piece in a similar price scale will not compare generally to the huge impact of room dedicated acoustics at all ...
What you seem to MISS IS that anything , any piece of gear will sound in synergy with all the other piece of gear but IN A DIFFERENT WAY in a different room ...The room acoustic will make a HUGE difference on speakers impressions...
If the room is bad, or if it is not bad but a simple living room or if it is a dedicated tailor made room acoustically controlled for a specific pair of speakers then you have here 3 cases of two increase in .SQ .. A bad room versus a good room with no acoustic control or/and treatment , and now going from a good room without any acoustic optimization to a dedicated acoustically controlled room ... Most gear upgrade will not compare to that if you already own a synergetical system already then upgrading anything is way less impactful than upgrading the room ...
Now dont believe any reviewer when they say that a piece of gear is " more musical "... It is relative not only to the design of the piece of gear but also to the synbergy with the other gear pieces but also to the room acoustics ... There is too much factors at play here to believe one reviewer...
I believe atmasphere because he knows psychoacoustic facts about human hearing which he use in his design to improve it and make it more musical...Then the only way to make the amplifier of atamasphere "more musical" if your sperakers are on the same level is giving to the system a dedicated acoustic room the best as possible in your house ...