"I am looking forward to some real listening soon ... at some level, nothing up to that point really matters."

Oh come on! You of all people know that nothing really matters because there is no matter. The experience you call "real listening" is nothing of the sort and will get you no closer to reality. Give it up! You, like me, are nothing but Hermitian conjugates acting on the Fock space.

House of the Rising Sone
Out in the mid or far field
Dedicated mid-woofers are over-rated