Is positive reinforcement why things are sounding better?

I walk into a certain big box store with a special high end audio room named after a tree in my front yard, I see some big name audiophile gear with impressive looking drivers and amps with big blue meters.  I’m in a large rectangular room lined with speakers against the wall and a bare tile floor.  I even see a pair of ML speakers pushed against the wall behind me.  The salesman puts on some music.  It sounds like a big boombox.  The music is bleak and uninspiring.  I’m dying just to move the speakers out from the wall.  But If I am a young, impressionable and budding audiophile then my conclusion is this 6 figure gear is so not worth the money.  I come to these forums and expound on my displeasure and distrust in the high end hifi community.  Everything is either snake oil or confirmation bias.  This so called hifi sound is a myth.

We have so few audio stores left but at least the few that I have been in have good set-ups.  Back a few decades, more audio stores than not had poor set-up.  Only a few stores had a room with a high end set up to showcase one system vs. rooms with gear wrapped around the walls.  But when you walk into a room with a good high end set up, be it a store or in someone’s home, you will know it.

I feel like I’m caught in the middle of something here.

Maybe I’m biased but I like the sound of Wilson speakers over other brands.  I confirmed that by listening to other brands.  Therefore, I bought Wilson speakers.  

Would it not be illogical to buy a speaker that I did not like to hear?

Or does confirmation bias drive me to upgrade to more expensive Wilson speakers?  I do feel that urge from time to time.  

“If a little is good, then a lot is better.”  I don’t know who said that but it should not be words to live by.  Although it is difficult to avoid in practice.

I can’t help but notice that most people’s babies are not that nice looking but when my boys were babies they were adorable.  

The engineering rule of thumb I learned decades ago:  Nobody believes the measurements except for the person that took them.  Everybody believes the calculations except for the person who made them.  

“Positive waves Moriarity“.  That‘s from Kelly‘s Heros- 1960s era WWII movie.  Then the bridge they needed was destroyed.

But I didn‘t know Wilson speakers existed until I heard a pair.  I had no expectation bias but once I heard them I wanted a pair.  It took me 27 years to finally work up the nerve to spend that much on a pair of speakers.  And over that period of time I never found another speaker that I liked better- or liked enough to buy in place of the speaker I wanted.

I agree that once I decided to buy my speakers, expectation bias continues to urge me to upgrade to one of their more expensive models.  But that is counterbalanced by, 1) Lack of desire to actually change speakers- a lot of effort, time and money, 2) Spending priorities such as needing to eat, and 3) Risk of disappointment that a change will not meet expectations.