Process to get to know your audio equipment?

[Psittac]

What is everyone's process they use to actually get to know their audio gear?

 

I find that it's very easy to let your audio fade into the background while you've got a blinky boi in front of your eyes and a couple clicky boi's at your fingertips.

 

I've started to take "Music Naps" as I call them.  Since I moved my desktop setup into the Livingroom next to the recliner couch, I can just kick back and zone out with headphones on and its absolute peace on earth.  I find that I can get initial impressions from a short session in my computer chair but when my brain is in that in-between state of conscious and unconscious, I really get to know an audio chain.  The only problem being the ability to dedicate an hour or two to listening and/or a nap.

[ShearMe]

Audio naps are the only way I've found as well. Gotta turn off all your other senses to heighten what your brain can pick out of those squishy transducers.

[H713]

I like to blow up said audio device with a HV pulse generator. Something capable of outputting 15 - 20 kV in less than 5 us does the trick. By the time I've got that particular audio device back up and running, I'll know more than I ever wanted to know about it. 

 

In all seriousness, I usually listen to it carefully in a dedicated session. I prefer to do it in a pitch-black room to minimize distractions (I'm a highly distractable person). After a while, I'll turn the lights back on and write down anything I noticed, then spend a few hours studying the schematics (if available) or taking some measurements to try and quantify what I'm hearing..

[rice guru]

I sit and compare personally using other headphones as reference for like a day. Then I just dedicate the next week to a month only using said piece of gear. It allows me to see what it's good at and not

[Entropy.]

I'm a similar case to you and shear. Oftentimes I just listen late into the night with apple earpods, pretty close to sleep and with no distractions in my room. Even with a suuper unresolving setup, I often find myself picking up cues that I don't hear in my headphone or speaker setups.