Great posts!
You nail the North American rythm obsession : speed...
You just forgot that the time it takes to know a component inside our system"room is way longer than few months generally ...
It does not concern break-in and our perception and tastes mainly not even the sinergy level between the pieces...
It is related to all modifications and optimizatioon process and with the devices and methods we will use to put this new pieces in the acoustic whole... What i called embeddings of a piecve of gear in his three working dimensions : electrical, mechanical, and purely acoustical working dimensions...
It takes more than a few months , sometimes more than a year to figere out how and why with what...
It is incredible to view recviewers go from one piece to another : they wrap off , plug to the wall , in the best case they wait few hours break-in ...
After that another pieces is reviewed, nevermind if they keep the same room and keep the same other pieces with no new embeddings controls for the next piece...
This has nothing to do with an informed audiophiles buying something because it is necessary knowing why, and takes a year to figure out how to put in in the acoustic, electrical and mechanical whole of the house/room/system/ears in such a way that the resulty will be unique and non identical to any other house/room/system/ears experience... With a balance with all acoustics factors implied ...😊
I like reviewers for their human aspects and few bits of "limited" information they may provide... Thats all ...
They sell they dont explain what to do really ... Even the better...Why ?
Because no sellers will explain why no piece of gear is a solution by itself tto the final acoustic experience results...
How to sell a costly piece of gear if it is not a perfect one perfect solution ? If this piece of gear can be replaced by a less costlier one but which will be better embedded in the house/room/system/ ears-brain perceptual fields ?
at best they will speak of necessary synergy and his electrical conditions thats all ..
You cannot trust reviewers not because they are not hones, but because they are like the average consumers often and their solution if we are not satisfied with a piece of gear is always the same : upgrading ...Because for them the costlier the better to reach optimal acoustic experience ... 😊
Living and working in Europe 25 years ago I saw a different perspective. We Americans do not get a lot of vacation time so Americans typically will tour Europe by visiting one city per day or so. Europeans saw that as shallow, that to experience a place one must “live” there a while. Spend a week or two in a place to get to know it. Easier to do with a 6 week vacation schedule. But the same applied with eating out. It took me some time to slow down and enjoy a two- three hour dinner in much of Europe. It was ironic when I moved back to the US and got annoyed by the frequent interruptions by my server and felt rushed having to leave the table after an hour.
Same thing with a stereo system. It takes some time to really get to know a component- especially a speaker. Sure, the wrong component could become apparent rather quickly and a correction is needed. Maybe that is where buying used is an advantage- much less break-in time needed. I know I have been in a bad relationship with a stereo component before. Breaking up is hard. I went through those stages: This is not what I was expecting. Maybe I can make this work. This isn’t working. What do I do now? This thing has to go. What do I replace it with and how will I know it is not another bad decision? Why am I in this hobby? Is it me? And so on. It can be rough.