As you say, not a blind test. It's very easy to convince yourself that something is helping. It's very common in audio production circles to have had the exper

As you say, not a blind test. It's very easy to convince yourself that something is helping. It's very common in audio production circles to have had the experience of working on, say, a snare track, tweaking EQ or whatever, and to convince yourself that you've improved it only to realise that the EQ is bypassed or you're on the wrong channel - basically you wiggle some knobs that make absolutely no difference to the sound but still hear a difference. I'm pleased you've found something that you enjoy, as after all, that's the point - whether you chose something on sound quality terms or not is irrelevant (as you have already realised they sound basically identical). If it means you enjoy listening to music more, you've won!