I suggest: don't over-generalize! What you've found is that in your system, with your room, your source material, and your speakers, that you and your friends prefer C1 to C2. Useful information! But what you have not found is anything more general than that -- nothing about results in other rooms, other systems, other speakers, other musical material, and **especially** not other components, even those in the same price categories.
It is a human tendency to generalize from a small amount of data. If you can limit your conclusions to what you actually have found, you'll be way ahead of many.
It is a human tendency to generalize from a small amount of data. If you can limit your conclusions to what you actually have found, you'll be way ahead of many.