I have been upgrading my systems and reading professional reviews for nearly fifty years; The Absolute Sound and Stereophile. During that time I have auditioned probable hundreds of components and purchased many dozens before and after hearing them. I have made out of town trips to audition new and really high end equipment. Additionally, I worked hard and learned the vocabulary and strove to identify sonic qualities in sound and components.
With this backdrop, I can say with certainty, professional reviews are relatively unbiased an extremely accurate. Professional reviewers explain their own preferences and biases.. show the different pieces of equipment they have used in the auditioning, used standard audiophile vocabulary. In general, they are extremely good at being unbiased. Yes, they are human… but there are processes of editor review to help keep reviews unbiased and make them informative.
On the other hand in forums, there is no vetting, no minimum experience requirement, no standard terminology. Some folks think the whole thing is a joke and a $100 component that cost $40,000 sound the same… although they have never seen one, let alone listen to one. Some folks think a $10K system is expensive, some think anything under $100K is terrible. Some love good deals.. etc.
So the value brought here has to be evaluated in a single reply (unless you spend a lots of time here and know some of the frequent posters. So a comment like “Buy X and be done with it is useless”. Within a post you must establish your credibility, identify your experience, biases, and tastes so the reader can decide if the comment is a valuable one to them. This is why I have my systems show and try to establish my credentials and not spread untrue conspiracy theories about companies motives.
