I've been an audio nutjob since the 1980s. In the last ~15 years, all the audio that mattered to me had to fit in a 13' x 13' home office. Now I have 2 systems here: the main one is speakers + amp + sub + DAC + 2 headphone amplifiers; side-system is headphones only (2 headphone amps). As you can tell from this paragraph, high end headphones have become a big thing for me.
But I've also had 6 or 7 pairs of speakers, powered & passive, through this system over the years. Along with all the headphones, some consider SOTA/TOTL, I've concluded that what matters most (and always did) is IMPLEMENTATION. That's a combination of ingenious design, careful parts selection, great construction, and listening/listening/listening to one's own product.
Sure certain parts (mainly capacitors, resistors, air chokes, transformers) have reached new theoretical heights. But a bad designer can make a bad speaker out of spectacular parts; and the inverse.
Right now I'm auditioning a headphone mfr's loaner (ZMF Atrium) of a model that will do a wide launch in a week. The owner/designer is gifted: for this headphone he patented a new damping architecture for each earcup, and damned if it doesn't work totally & completely. This sound is spectacular, something completely different.
It's all about IMPLEMENTATION...