Yes fully agree - to keep sadness at bay one has to play and try things out. And money is meant to be spent,
If you get a chance - you will need a helper on this who can take simple instructions - try line up the same albums (or series of tracks) both at Redbook and a high Rez (say 24/192 or DSD) and get your helper to switch randomly between tracks and rez without you being told which is which. And both of you to take notes - and then compare. Would be interesting what % success you have.
In order to further reduce differences between different mastering simply use high rez files and downsample to Redbook. (in JRiver select tracks > Library Tools > Convert Format).
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