Specs very often do not tell a full story. Actually, most times IMO specs are deceptive. You really have to be a fairly knowable to understand what’s being presented and more importantly what’s being left out. How many times have you seen a devices frequency response quoted as 20Hz to 20kHz. Well, that spec is meaningless without additional information. If they forgot to tell you its +/- 10db well some frequency’s may sound 4 times louder then others. Not quite what most would assume.
Even if they give you a complete quote it might not match the device you bought. This maybe from forgetting to update the manual/web page after a revision to just outright lying (think Chinese knockoff).
So when someone says X is better then Y because they read the spec … I take it with a grain of salt. That doesn’t mean specs are useless it just means you need to make sure they make sense, are interpreted correctly, and not take them as gospel.
In any case, putting specs aside, I can not tell you what your hearing. There are a lot of factors which can create poor sound … sometimes it’s exactly what you think it is … sometimes it’s not.
