You mention this as a passion for tech. Which aspects most interest you, and are you interested more in the engineering aspects or the psycoachoustic aspects? (not that one path doesn't lead to the other, but still).
For my journey, I looked for the debates, read them, then bought all the things to listen for myself.
I do recommend getting trained as a listener, and "The Acoustics and Psycho-acoustics of Speakers in Rooms" is a good book choice.
I also recommend:
http://www.roger-russell.com/ (RIP). It's a great history of McIntosh (and by extension audio) as well as a deep dive into the engineering of speakers.
