and without a lot of money you can’t have an intermediate system in your living room, magically that will work and be a good reference. You need to COMPARE, that where a store is vital.A good few bucks system used or legendary vintage is not becoming "trash" suddenly compared to costly higher one today...
And the magic at which you point exist, i call that ACOUSTIC...
It may cost NOTHING..... I know i made my room treatment and control myself...
I did not need to compare my system to any other to know if timbre of a choral piece or an opera fill my room with naturalness and 3-d holographic volume...
I need to compare only if i want a bit more for a very big load of money yes....What all people name an upgrade....
if you want to learn how to "swim" in audio, you can read reviews or compare yes, but like you say to learn to swim we need "water" and in audio water is acoustic....Not marketing electronical design articles or reviews or audio show gear comparison in bad room ....Acoustic and psycho-acoustic science and experiments...