"I Trust My Ears"

Agreed. Listen to below original music. If they sound absolutely the best, your ears are good. Alex/Wavetouch

You Don't Know You're Born - Mark Knopfler

My Favorite Picture of You - Guy Clark

Light my fire - Pat Barber

donavabdear    Don't trust your ears unless you have something to reference your memory to. Audiophiles listen to expensive speakers and systems that often add extra flavor and that sounds better to us, usually because the system is expensive and impressive. The proper sound is in the mixing and mastering studio unless you have done that you have no reference to judge what the proper sound is. No one can say this or that is better or worse unless you have been in the studio listening to the final mix. 

ghdprentice said it well. I for one started this journey just at the start of covid and all I relied on was reviews and forums. I have always wondered, back then, was I hearing good enough. yeah, wallet say so, but was it good enough??

As covid subsided and more shows open up (and dealers) I took that opportunity to answer my questions. well, I found out that I was not too off tangent. we can go on and on, but for me, let me summarize it. You don't know what missing unless you know what you're looking for. And, you think you are right, but sometimes you are wrong. 

needless to say, I thought my system is good and satisfying a couple of years ago, but after listening to shows and reading a lot on forums and finally listening to High end ($$$$$) gear, well, you will know what you are missing because our brain is telling us to observe (listen) carefully what a truly expensive gear sounds like compared to my home gear. As this discovery unfolds, then you now seek that goal but being realistic on your wallet. 

You will eventually reach a point that your gear is good enough (again based on your budget) and that's where you can stop (if ones wishes). I check mine against top $$$ builds and my EARS tell me that I am close. 

First, i can enjoy any concert in any place with good or bad acoustics, i dont bother with sound if i goes to hear an artist...

Second the goal if we want to create a system/room  well optimized acouistically, mechanically and electrically is not reproducing a live event ...

This is impossible  even  if your budget is way over my 1000 bucks system...

Third is you are like i am interested to do the most with the system you have, you must train you hearing, why ? to understand room acoustics...Is it a mystery impossible to understand? there is no other way...

And "We must train our hearing by tuning our brain with thinking concepts and setting experiments in a system/room with different musical styles",   "Tastes must be educated.",  " We need acoustics concepts to understand audio",  "Crocodiles had tastes and we cannot convince them their tastes are bad habits...A part of our brain is a crocodile..." and on and on.  @mahgister  I would be so depressed if I had to go through all that to enjoy a concert.  In all of that, I have never heard any system reproduce any live music event I've been to.

@mihorn 

But do your speakers spit at you when you play a Dead Kennedys album? Cuz if they don't, then it ain't live.

I always retain equipment so I can do A>B>A compare, and I may have to repeat this numerous times. These days seem to be retaining amps since I can't find fault with any of them, I rotate for the varied presentations. Sometimes its not the obvious things like resolution/transparency that offer the greatest contrast.