How you know your system is improving?

You have to know where the target is in order to hit it. Also the target must be real not just a pipe dream that can never be realistically achieved

You are exactly right...

It is why nobody can achieve for example  "listener envelopment" acoustic  concept and experience without knowing what it is and how to reach it  and it will not help here to only upgrade  toward always costlier pieces of gear...

Amplifier or speakers or dac design dont replace mechanical, electrical and acoustical  basic knowledge...

@hilde45 you are very kind! It sure would be nice to see it and you in person, I will be mindful about when I can be in the Denver area. 

You have to know where the target is in order to hit it. Also the target must be real not just a pipe dream that can never be realistically achieved.

The problem of knowing what the target is goes back at least as far as Hume's argument that "taste" depends on educated critics who help the rest find the way.

Only judges with a more refined taste will respond to the “universal” appeal of superior art. Because refinement demands considerable practice, such critics are few in numbers....     the standard is normative: it must explain why the sentiments of some critics are better and worse. It does not follow that sentiments are true and false in any absolute sense. 

These reflections lead Hume to postulate five criteria for identifying good or “true” critics: 

“Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to this valuable character” (SOT, 278).

After several stabs at identifying the standard of taste, Hume identifies it as the consensus or “joint verdict” of “true critics” (SOT, 278–79). However, such critics are “rare” (SOT, 280) and “few are qualified to give judgment on any work of art” (SOT, 278). Consequently, it is not the verdict of contemporary critics that constitutes the standard, but rather the consensus of qualified judges over time and from multiple cultures (SOT, 271; SOT, 280).

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-aesthetics/#HumeEssaTast

You have to know where the target is in order to hit it. Also the target must be real not just a pipe dream that can never be realistically achieved.

The problem of knowing what the target is goes back at least as far as Hume's argument that "taste" depends on educated critics who help the rest find the way.

Taste is a factor implied but completely secondary .😁

Anyway "taste" must be trained: ask a musician, an acoustician or an experimented audiophiles.

Because the target in optimization process is some specific balance between all acoustic factors and some ratio aimed toward a specific acoustic concept with the gear limitations used in a specific room ...

The main core concept is "timbre"...

After it is the "spatial characteristics of sound which information is encoded with the "timbre " perception phenomenon .....

After that "listener" envelopment factor and the source width auditory ratio are important to create...It is written as : LV /ASW in acoustics articles. There is almost no reviewer who spoke about that. guess why ? they sell a product they dont teach how to properly use it with acoustics nor they teach us how to optimize a product working toward his peak quality.

If you dont know these acoustics concepts and experience you dont know how to optimize your system/room and you will resolve the problem by the throwing of money i9n useless upgrades( half at least upgrades are completely useless in any audiophiles life ) And as a children in fron of a soup bowl unable to appreciate the cooking refinement you will say : "i dont like it , it is my taste " ...taste must be educated and trained...

it is not Hume we must consult here about"taste" but Helmholtz...

Then you are not even wrong here because "Taste" must be trained and play a role as gear marketing dudes and reviewers know very well and use this fact to attract us toward their product not toward knowledge in acoustics.They know how to frlatter the consumer in the right way, the way that suit them : expanse and expansive. They will never spoke about acoustics importance. They will sing the word "taste" in chorus.

«I love McIntosh amplifier as my mother soup because it is my Taste» -- Anonymous subjective deluded audiophiles 😋

«I hate McIntosh amplifier because they measured bad on my tool»Anonymus objective deluded audiophile 😎