Would you donate a dollar to have these Members Review a Product?

Lets see, you have a Luxman fanboy, a Synergistic fanboy and a GAN fanboy. What do you expect the results to be? I can give you a clue. BAD idea. You can add me as a McIntosh fanboy too. We could also add one of the Tekton fanboys to review Tekton. Do you see what I am getting at?

I’d rather read a review by a "fanboy" more than some random dude I know nothing about. At least the fanboy you know where he’s coming from.
Its like, who’s the world’s most recognizably great reviewer? If its not Michael Fremer I’ll eat Turd Ferguson’s hat. Everybody knows Mikey. And if there’s anything we know about Mikey its that he likes it fast and hard. We know this how? Because he’s right up front about it. I’m exaggerating but MF definitely makes it explicitly clear that he does have a preference. So when we read MF we know exactly what lens we are looking through.
(If you haven’t been following Fremer for decades and only know a few examples then spoiler alert- he’s a writer not a lawyer. He doesn’t include the same disclaimer every review.)

Same goes for "fanboys" whatever that means. Seems to me a derogatory term cooked up in order to avoid serious thought and excuse sloppy reasoning. But whatever. The fact remains that if you do read a "fanboy" and the "fanboy" has anything negative to say the one thing you know for sure, he’s not making it up. You just don’t criticize what you love, unless its really necessary.

@millercarbon, hope you weren't offended. I meant it as a compliment. I'd enjoy hearing 3-4 frequent flyers from these boards review stuff. You chime in with meaningful posts so you came to mind.

No, its hard to read it as anything other than a compliment.

As far as reviews go, I remain consistent in reading things differently than most people. When I go looking for something I read as many comments from as many people as I can find. The last things I did this with were Total Contact, Swarm/DBA subwoofers, Herron phono stage and Koetsu. I searched out and read everything I could find on all of these. Everything from basic research from 30+ years ago (DBA) to published "professional" reviews to even negative side comments and digs people make. Koetsu and Herron were "auditioned" on YouTube and I even called the YouTuber up and picked his brain. Called Keith Herron. You get the idea. I often say DYODD. I take my own medicine.

Doing it this way takes time and effort. But the payoff is huge. Every one of these things the surprises have all been on the upside. They all turned out far better than expected. 

I think this is because any one person can have any number of quirks, biases, strengths or weaknesses. The character of a component however is there for all of them, and a pattern will emerge. That's what I look for.

There's an underlying philosophy here that I think it would serve well to remember. I've said it before and will say it again. A good component is a good component- period! A good power cord is gonna sound good no matter what its connected to, no matter what speakers its heard with, no matter the room, no matter the music. Or its not a good power cord. Replace power cord with anything else- amp, cartridge, I don't care- same goes.

This might not seem all that important but its crucial. Bad enough to think you can't read reviews because the people all hear differently. To also believe the components are as individually quirky? Might as well throw a dart. 

My experience shows you can do a lot better. It really works for me, and I am sure it will work for you and everyone else as well. You don't have to pay with money either. Just time.

Uh... thanks?