When I first got serious about spending serious dollars in this hobby back in the mid 80's I had a subscription to Stereophile. It was my scripture and I read each review assured these guys knew what they were talking about. Many years and lots of gear later I realized that just because a reviewer says a piece is good, does not mean I will. No one can tell an individual what they will/won't like, only that person can make that decision.
Maybe critical listening skills are bad?
In another thread about how to A/B compare speakers for a home I was thinking to myself, maybe the skills a reviewer may use to convey pros and cons of a speaker to readers is a bad skill to use when we evaluate hardware and gear?
I'm not against science, or nuance at all. I was just thinking to myself, do I really want to spend hours A/B testing and scoring a speaker system I want to live with?
I do not actually. I think listening for 2 days to a pair of speakers, and doing the same to another pair I need to focus first on what made me happy. Could I listen to them for hours? Was I drawn to spend more time with music or was I drawn to writing minutiae down?
And how much does precise imaging really do for my enjoyment by the way? I prefer to have a system that seems endless. As if I'm focusing my eyes across a valley than to have palpable lung sounds in my living room.
Anyway, just a thought that maybe we as consumers need to use a different skill set when buying than reviewers do when selling.