As an example of the thing we must learn, at the price of loosing money and wasting our time; i just listened to an interesting video of Jay , a high end reviewer here and dealer, an honest dude, but he learned after spending money on hundreds of amplifiers and speakers ( high end products) he just learned very recently that room acoustic matter as much as any gear if not more at the end...😁
I am sure he will learn soon why all stereo system are flawed and how to cure it ... But it is another story...😊
Then spare your money and time , more than just room acoustic, read and study acoustics articles and psychoacoustics research basics, among other very basic mechanical and electrical factors, and suspend any upgrading expanse, try some experiments and think again instead of throwing money at the race of upgrading... Learn how to embed ANY system with all kind of measures and some acoustic experiments and perhaps as myself you will be surprized by the results...
My hobby is now listening music not a foolish upgrading race or a frustrated audio experience... A relatively low cost system ( we dont all have the same budget for sure) well chosen and well embed can give minimal acoustical satisfaction passed a minimal threshold... So much so, it does not appear as a stopgap but as the first level of audiophile experience... sound ectasy begin here ... No need to invest much money at all cost if you learn how to do it right to begin with...
The good news is it does not takes so much money...
The bad news is it ask for studies and times...
But being creative is more fun than giving your hard won money...
If you are without short budget and with a deep pocket, forget my post, and buy your dream high cost system plug it on the wall and called it audiophile TOP experience with the price tags to prove it for sure...😊
After all we are all in our own world and with our own needs...
Then to answer the OP , his question makes not much sense because we must trust our ears for sure but we must train our ears too than we must experiments with all kind of measures and varying parameters...
Opposing hearing and measuring is stupid.... We must correlate the two in a learning cycle... If we want to UNDERSTAND with our ears and if we want to hears with our brain working...