Just wombling past this not especially fine day. I don't have much to do with audio these days other than listening to it & doing some commissions for Markaudio, but for what it's worth (as I don't think it's been directly said), re the two questions from the first post:
What should I hear?
and
What should I listen to/for to prove I’m an idiot for preferring sans x over?
In reverse order:
- Nobody implied you are an idiot, and it would have been a trifle difficult to do so, given that said was in the first post of a thread you created. Granted, you are writing for effect, presumably to generate debate rather than seek information judging from it & subsequent comments (observation, no criticism implied), but it's a point worth stressing for the sake of clarity
For the first, a few notes, the overarching one being that there is no single answer to that question, and it is impossible for there to be a single answer (other than that). More particularly, it depends on:
-How much hearing damage you have, and the nature thereof. Since none of us have 'perfect' hearing, and it is damaged / decays in various ways & through various causes as we age, this applies to everybody, but is never going to be exactly the same.
-What your particular social background has preconditioned you to hear -whether it really exists or not. Again, all of us experience that, and those who claim not to be are typically (arguably by definition) those who have the greatest biases.
-The nature of the speaker itself. The initial question, in the absence of heavy clarification, seems to imply that if a person does X, you will invariably obtain Y results in all circumstances. Which is not the case. All loudspeakers are different; you have different drive units, with different frequency, impedance and distortion behaviour in different boxes (baffles or whatever); ergo they will sound different and not exhibit the same behaviour or sound the same if you treat them all exactly the same way. So -what 'should' you hear? Without knowing what the speaker & drivers are, plus the above -nobody can say exactly. It really is as simple as that.
You will note I have said nothing about method, for or against. Or alternatives for that matter. Method is method. They all have their own balance of advantages & disadvantages. You do whatever works for you (or to put it another way -whatever makes you happy).