Good thread... You write... " I need to have a better understanding of what is important to me." This is not a trivial process!. What 10 or so pieces of music do you listen to to make that determination. What does each piece require the equipment to do? Next step is to get your characterization down in words and know that when you listen to the same equipment and music a week later you draw the same experience and words with recordings you know. This is the process of Distinguishing "what is important to me" Then you can plug in a new piece of equipment and hopefully distinguish the characteristics that you hear using the words that you know what they mean. ... You write you value " having natural tones and depth of tone to my music" Only you can know what that means... but the reality check for communicating is Live Music and this grounds sound reproduction in the world we share. Checking in on a skilled singer without amplification is a must. (God I miss live music in covid) This allows some communication with others about you what hear and what you like and gets you feedback that is relevant. ... I would try to resist the A B testing phase until you are comfortable with your characterizations. When you do get around to making a selection of A or B .... consider you are choosing A or B and selecting one and not deciding on A or B to select one... If you are deciding.... the root of the word is cide... ie matricide... homocide.. try not to kill off one... and avoid the better or worse framework.... try I prefer A over B because I value the xxx on these pieces of music and that is what I choose. This advice came from my visits and purchases at Lyric Hi Fi in NYC. I came to love the Burrmeister Sampler 2 disk that was the Lyrics go to music selection because the range of music covered all of the bases to challenge equipment.
So... that is a lot easier said then done! .... Now, the other half of the value of a shop like the Lyric is that the more you know about what you want, the better the guys could point you in the right directions. I have this vivid memory of my first visit and walking in and wanting to A B Dacs on a Saturday afternoon.... and the older owner, one of the most well known guys in high end audio walking by overhears my conversation and asked... How would I know? Ha 10 minutes wasn't gonna do it...waste of my time. so... "and then not hearing it in my system, not in my room, and all that is probably not optimal" was exactly the point he made to me.. In those days,, all we had were ladder dacs and the key was how to filter the output..... A few more 200 mile trips to NYC and my ability to select ANY DAC was just a total stop.... Bottom line... Lenny said...look... this DAC just came in trade yesterday.... buy it.... its brilliant and a steal... Trust me! ... And so I did.... He was right... and I have spent the rest of my time in the hobby doing the fun hard work of critical listening using my Burmeister Sampler disk!... AND trusting some people who's judgement I trust. Both of these gears work for me.. The brilliance of choosing a purchase versus killing off 3 pieces I considered and keeping the 4th for me is the freedom from second guessing and my enjoyment is much much better. Have fun!