Hmm ... so Leo, you didn't perform any ABXing, double blind tests and all that is needed at Hydrogen to prove that software players just cannot make a difference ?
Sorry, but in that case we cannot trust your findings.
hahahahaha
About the darker background :
When you are not sure which is better
and when you don't have the presence of standing waves a rather absolute mesasurement is putting your arms (or whatever bodypart) on a table, bar or other "catching" surface, and feel that surface vibrating.
This would be a typicle means of judgement : the more vibes you feel, the better the playback must be. If you play some louder, you can just feel it on your body. Also, this is a "within one second" judgement thing.
Then, try to imagine that when the standing waves get out of the way, the more fuzzy (lower freq) sound gets out of the way with the same means. After this stage, where standing waves do not disturb anymore, there comes the (potential) stage of the waves still being able to get more tight. That's to be "measured" as described ...
Thanks,
Peter
PS: I try to keep all the judgements in their own threads, so that's why I moved your topic to this new one.