I have my Reference Recordings of Scheherezade and Harry James, several RCA Shaded Dogs produced by Wilkerson, some Mercury's like the Rach 3 and especially Columbia's and telarcs of the Cleveland where I know the sound of the hall in which they were recorded..

These are all I refer to when listening really critically for the effects of hardware on the music. No worries about studios.

All we can ask of "pop" recordings is hearing the bass line or whether the lyrics are obscured in the playback or swallowed whole by the singer.

I'm knocked out by listening to the 3 way line-up I have right now of Marantz 2215B, the pair of Dignity Audio 300B's and the Jolida 202A that are stacked on top and next to each other so I just switch a few wires and there you are.
Plus I can go back and forth between ultra-complex 4-way monster speakers and little sealed 2-way with first order crossovers.

Hey, It's FUN!