Does someone’s opinion affect your opinion?

“What if he said your wife is ugly....

I let all the visitors know ahead of time about my wife’s Santa Clarita Diet 😉

I think the kind of impact your friends comment has is somewhat dependent on your experience level, exposure to other systems, and depth of knowledge. For instance if someone said that of my system, I would have to exert some self control not to start laughing. I have been an avid audiophile for fifty years. While I am open to learning, I know exactly what attributes my system has; relative to real music and other systems.

On the other hand, I would become very interested in understanding where they are coming from. I would want to hear what they have been hearing to better understand.

I do understand your reaction. I think it is pretty normal… I’m assuming you have not been an audiophile for fifty years. It would spur me on to understand more. I would certainly want to hear what he is listening to, I would also go out and find some audio stores and listen to what they have. Is there any truth in the claim? If not, great, you can go back to enjoying your system. But if there is… then you can learn something… this is how we learn over time and zero in on what you will ultimately appreciate as you mature.

I would look at your friends comments as a great opportunity to learn and experience more systems.

It's only natural to seek validation or a rational for your personal opinions. I believe we've all experienced it, at some point or another, in some form, what @DEADHEAD1000 is experiencing. Most of us don't do this with just our audio, but with most everything in life: food, art & entertainment, cars, on & on. We read reviews, we invite opinions to inform our perceptions.

I think your friend has provided you with a valuable insight: you now know how his experience ("piercing" & almost unlistenable) relates to your perception ('enjoyable'). That is a refence point by which I mean that a refence point is neither right nor wrong, bad or good. It is simply a point to refer to relative to you and your opinion. That is the utility of audio reviewers: when you get familiar with their opinions you know how to interpret those in relation to your own.

Also you mentioned it's a new cartridge, so there's folks hear that will say it needs to 'break in'. FWIW I think its the listener that really needs  to 'beak in'.

Cheers and let your ears be your guide

If all adjustable parameters are good,your own ears do the final sign off.

Every listener at a show/demo room will not agree a SOTA rig sounds amazing.

It looks like your perception is tainted however. Time for another cartridge upgrade.

I spend a lot of time in Company experiencing different Sources, i.e Vinyl, CD and even Streaming of late.

Along with this there are Cables, Phono Amp's, Pre-Amp's, Power Amp's and Speakers put into service to be scrutinised be a Group of experienced audio enthusiasts, that have approx' 200 years of being quite interested in and owning audio systems under their belts as a group.

I can assure that at times the whole of the follow up descriptions can be largely gobbledygook, as there are times when each individual has locked on to a frequency that another had not been effected by, or overlooked the frequency and was more attuned to detailing and dynamics.

These items produced during a replay, that become a sticking point, are in my view related to ones mood at the time of the occasion, as mood brings out variances of sensitivities.