I think this is a slippery slope. Sometimes "different" seems right... at least at first... because different causes our ears/brains to critically listen again. I know I've been tricked by that more than a few times.
Here's a good example - I recently sent in my Devialet Expert integrateds for an upgrade (free, but that's another story). At the risk of being without music for a few weeks, I hooked up my primary speakers to my Sherwood HT receiver and pulled out an old Squeezebox Touch to stream Roon to it. I was expecting it to sound like crap. But it didn't. In fact, I was really enjoying what I was hearing and it has taken a few days to now notice what is missing - well defined bass, extended highs, rich and deep sound stage. But that didn't change the fact that at least for a few days, I was really enjoying cheap HiFi.