I hate to repeat from a recent post… but.
In 1978 I committed to a really great system and after reading popular stereo magazines (Stereo Review ((not a good source)) I bought the top rated Onkyo tape deck. It performed well, I thought. To get the very best out of it I had a technician align the heads for maximum performance. That destroyed the sound.. several iterations… never sounded good again.
I was in a high end store sharing my woes with a sales person and he said, “here, take this home and try it.” It was a first generation Nakamichi, wood around the outside, upright.. seven years old, weighed a ton. I was skeptical. I took it home, it was unbelievable. Comparing it to the original, in perfect working order Onkyo, the Onkyo sounded like a small plastic transistor radio vs real high fi equipment. It was a revelation, showed me what set apart audiophile (other than astronomical cost) from the rest and set me on my audiophile path for the next fifty years.