It's an interesting topic.
I am not a player unfortunately, but I get a lot of feedback regarding how instruments sound and play quite often through my work.
It seems that certain instruments always seem to sound bad to most people, others seems to always sound good and then everything in the middle seems to just be on a case by case basis / player preference. Everyone hears things differently.
I've heard the same instruments played by numerous different people, some might love it instantly, some may hate it. Some people make it sounds good, some people just can't make it work.
The psychology of the relationship between musician, instrument and maker is something of interest to me. If I ever were to undertake a doctorate...