I realised after about 5 years into the hobby that my emotional response to a system playing music have no correlation with how best it adheres to the mainstream accepted and published measurements. There are some fundamental measurements that I would call " basic engineering ones " that I look up to get to a common sense - baseline. Beyond that, I have found that everything is all over the place and it is only actual audition that determines how my emotional response will be.
Bingo. This is my sentiment as well.
Since I am a science-driven person, I have made an attempt to figure out what specs correlate to sound I like or what contributes to sound I file lacking soul.
I think global feedback is the biggest culprit. Something about high global feedback amps messes with timbral accuracy, IMO.