Similar experience/journey.
what really helped educate my ears was being part of a small group of fellow audiophiles and regular listening sessions at each others houses and we were all going thru different gear as upgrades or just on loan to listen to.
we also played a lot with speaker positions and room treatments in each of our rooms.
being able to listen to a lot of gear and with mags like the absolute sound and stereophile as our guides was a great experience.