Seek advice on forums but always listen to your own ears!

You can only trust your ears if you have good ears and know what to listen for.  Otherwise it can really be helpful to take advice and direction from others.  Unfortunately it can be hard to figure out what is good advice and what's not.   What I mean to say is that trusting your own ears has its limitations.

@lalitk the proof is in the ears.  No one can talk you into buying smthg if it sounds bad if you do your own research and put in the work.  Yes I would love to,sell a lot of gear. But if I don’t sell a thing it’s fine. I don’t live off that. I have a business I been running 2 decades.  I actually let people demo before they buy in a lot of cases. We will be at Axpona in room 476 in the Chicago Area on April 12,13,14.  We will be in Dallas at the lone star Audiofest June 7,8,9th. We will be in California Audiofest June 7,8,9th. We will be at pacific Audiofest and Capitol Audio fest later in the year. You can come see us. I’m not hiding the fact that I sell gear.  But I’m an audiophile first. If you don’t buy a thing I want you to learn from my experiences and maybe I can learn from yours as well. 

@mahgister well said. I think it’s good to,gain perspectives from different people we all have different experiences. I tell people. That the gear I’m affiliated with I own because to me it sounded great. It might not be for everybody.  Some guys like tubes. Some like warmth. Some like hug soundstages. We all have our preferences but I have owned or long demoed at least 15 Amps in the last 20 years. I have had at least 10 pre amps and at 10 to 15 sources.  I have tried 50 different speaker cable brands. I have heard systems from 200.00 to 1.2million dollars. I try to share as much as I can. 

Unfortunately it can be hard to figure out what is good advice and what's not.

That's a +1!  Someone asks a question and five people (or there abouts) answer one way, and then another five (or so) answer the exact opposite.

Problem solving starts defining the problem, conditioning a literature search and interviewing those individuals experienced in the field to established potential cause and effect.  Pro-reviews and forum discussions are a starting point to guide on potential products that align with your personal preferences and to gain technical knowledge.  However, you must use experimental design to find cause and effect improvement.  In our hobby that is audition.  Comparative audition controlling as many system variables as possible is best but not always feasible.  Recognize the audition process will work better if you have defined your goal clearly on the improvement you want to make (problem definition, in other words).  To define the improvement you need to understand your preferences.  In conclusion, pro-reviews are excellent research tools to gain knowledge, but using your own ears in experimental, controlled auditions is the only way to make a final choice.