I don't know what's your process when you try to evaluate a plugin for a purchase, or just when you try to understand which one is generally better, or what's the best for a specific job.
I was used to test 2 or 3 max between the most suggested on internet, cause going furhter it's very time consuming!!!
Anyway you may leave on the table good products, just because you didn't even take them into considerations, or you may even overestimate a plugin just because it's usually the one people like to suggest.
But people's suggestions may be the result of the same process, 2-3 comparison and call it a day.
Don't get me wrong, this may be good enough to pick good products, but for audio nerds (like me) who enjoy the discussion, and are genuinely curious, can be very interesting to do something more.
For that reason i've decided to tests different plugins of the same kind
The first comparison it's about Pultec EQ, i tried to match with plugin doctor the eq curve trying to make them to sound as close as possible, but i discovered some of them have a very different response, so the sound can be very different, but i got the tonal differences, so instead to go back to matching them just using my ears, i decided to keep a more "scientific" approach.
At the end, knobs and frequencies response are part of the plugins.
If you want you can watch the video in the following link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKTekpVzE7o
a tl;dw some of them sound pretty similar, while others sound like i made a big mistake with knobs (expecially one that's very dark) but if plugin doctor didn't had any weirdness, they are all with the samish curve. Anyway as i wrote before, with this listening i got what i was looking for, and to me there is not a complete winner, but i just spotted the one who i enjoy the more how low freq sounds, and the one who sound very balanced and natural
The next comparison i'm working on is between 1176 emulations, and i can already say that's even more interesting.
If you have any suggestion/request feel free to share it, i'm very curious to know your experience with plugins comparison and with plugins you usually use for different purposes
Pultec
1176
La-2a
SSL 4000E
Fairchild