Hi Ron,
Interesting perspective on the scale of differences: only 10-25 percent differences, and the rest is partisanship of ownership...These differences, and the scale itself, may be due to preferences, lack of system transparency or room issues that make the component truly shine and fully express their individual character, level of engagement with digital/ passion for digital, others, or a combination of these...
Obviously many others see the differences between these pieces very differently. My perception from the comments above is that the MSB fans are celebrating in the end zone, the "losers" are licking their wounds, while others whose favorite brands are not mentioned are somewhat disengaged.
To help calibrate your scale, what kind of differences do you perceive between speakers? SS amps? tube amps? analog rigs?