I want music to sound as real as possible. The only coherent goal to that effect is a transparent window on recordings, with the ability to add flavor. I use a setup with L/R run on a minimalist signal chain (direct from digital source into digital crossover, or with an A/D for phono), and add in DSP heights and surrounds to taste. Since the surround is controlled separately, it’s just like having a volume control on an ambience channel. The mains are horns so with some recordings a little bit of extra room energy is welcome.

Depends on the specific gear. Some want better regulation, others just outboard the transformer and rectifier and have additional filters/regulation internally and don’t need help.

Too much! But I’m sure it sounds great in a room with all that glass nearby and seemingly no acoustic treatment.

Your rig is so clean! Really cool!

No surprise there, sample rate puts a hard cap on frequency response. If you still have decent (not flat, just not high loss) hearing up to 16k+, 32 v 44 will be easy to identify. Compression works differently. Like a painting with a color missing would be more noticeable than if all the color gradients were “stepped” rather than smooth, but with a very high number of steps.

Oh no….

Very hot take: Zero platform innovation. Just stagnant overpriced design. This concept was explored fully in the B&W Nautilus. Nice parts though. Imagine a 300k speaker that can’t do a medium room at reference level.

Pbj is 400?!?! I remember it at $75!

Generally just playing it is fine with current speakers. You’re adjusting to the sound of the new speaker just as it’s adjusting (usually slightly) to moving more often. With older speakers sometimes there’s significant suspension issues that need to work themselves out- hardened adhesives, etc. Sometimes it’s too late, sometimes a little boogie can bring them back.