it-goes, a listening preference comparison is very different from an audio quality comparison. People very often prefer audio components that have various technical defects, such as slightly-to-moderately elevated bass response and/or distortion (= "warmth") or slightly-to-moderately elevated upper midrange response (= "detail"). And even a fraction of a dB difference in average listening level will nearly always cause people to favor the louder track--particularly if they're not aware that it's a tiny bit louder.
None of that is arcane or rarified knowledge. Back in the days of hifi stores, salesmen used this knowledge to sell whatever their manager wanted them to sell--and the customers thought that they'd picked the Ohm or Rectilinear speakers over the (much better but less profitable for the store to sell) other speakers in a scientific manner.
The thing about any listening preference comparison is that it always occurs in a specific context. You start with a certain pickup that was made with a certain pair of mikes in a certain place, on a certain band, with their particular PA system, in a certain hall. If your A/Ds sound different from one another, one of them will probably make a better-sounding recording from the signals that they're given to work with, for a given listener. But if any of those variables had been very different--different mikes, a different band or PA system, different mike placement or a different room--the preference comparison could very well have gone the other way. It's meaningful for that one recording and that one set of circumstances, but that's all.
--best regards