Good advice. I don’t do this, but I do use measurements as part of the decision making process. I don’t rely solely on other people’s subjective impressions.
I decided to label myself an objective subjectivist. That is, in the end the subjective experience of listening to music is all that really matters. However I accept that many things influence this that are outside of the performance of the equipment I am using. There is a gap between perception and reality that I think is larger than most people realize. On one hand it is perfectly acceptable to me to ignore this gap and buy whatever makes you happy. In the other hand my mind doesn’t work that way, so I’m attempting to minimize that gap by comparing different products directly under controlled conditions to eliminate as much bias as possible.
Through this method I might decide that all DACs sound the same to me. Or that tube amps sound better. I don’t know yet, but I can assure you that I will attempt to figure it out with as open mind as I can consciously have and that whatever conclusions I come to will be with the caveat that they really apply only to me: my budget, my music taste, my ears, and my mind’s perception.
Right now I’m exclusively exploring headphones since I’m convinced they make the biggest difference. I will get to amps and maybe DACs eventually but for now I have a modest investment in a Schiit Modi and Magni 3+:
You nailed it there. My hobby is music exploration, not finding the equipment that most faithfully reproduces the recorded sound. The two are related but not the same. I hope that my Medium post captured this to some extent. I will expand on it further later. Thanks, this type of discussion is the reason I am here. 