We have been in this pursuit for the same about amount of time. Absolutely nothing has changed in the process if you want to be efficient about it. There are less audio stores. But you use those, maybe find some local audiophiles to listen to their systems, and read Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, and HiFi+.
A survey of influences will be largely a waste of time. Watching YouTube videos can waste enormous amounts of time to asses if you can believe them… most are too biased or many lack experience. Hard work and money is still the key. You can get info from here… particularly from those that try explain their systems and preferences and post their systems so you can assess their preferences.
I have gone through a major upgrade about every five to ten years for the last fifty years. About thirty years ago I got my first tube component, a preamp… then every so slowly (not purposefully moving to tubes) one component after another became tubed. The move was driven by increased exposure to real acoustic music. Including over ten years with season tickets to the symphony. I slowly realized that by concentrating on details and bass… the imaging, etc… I had largely lost the musical involvement and emotional connection. As I added one after another great tube component the music came back. My system is now invisible to my ears… I am pulled into the music. You can see my systems under my UserID.