ASR seems to assert that only specs and measurements matter. Some specs are worthless, such as speaker specs generally.
Measurements are a starting point. Magazine reviews are interesting, although consistently positive. Consumer shows present equipment under difficult and demanding circumstances such as the tiny rooms. Listening to equipment at AXPONA is revealing.
Listening to the equipment properly set up in your own room is the only real test. The specs, the measurements and the self-anointed experts (with the attendant Dunning- Kruger effect) will no longer matter when you judge it yourself, in your own home, without the unnecessary distractions.