I'm with Octopus on this. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that the differences we think we hear mostly disappear when we limit ourselves to auditory input.
I often don't hear a difference when someone swaps a non-speaker component and starts telling me how much better it sounds. It's liberating when you realize the odds are you will almost always be right if you sense it doesn't *sound* different. It is overwhelmingly likely they are the ones admiring the emperor's clothes, due to bling, financial interest, purchase rationalization, or some other bias. No difference deserves to be the null hypothesis. Of course believing that can lead to its own analysis and listening bias, hence the rabid, evangelizing objectivist.
But isolated auditory isn't typically how we listen at home, so other considerations should be allowed, and incorporated in the purchase decision. Crooked timber, as Kant said.