Dealers will always route you to something they sell. It isn’t even that dishonest, IMHO, call it a grey area. So basicly, you have to pretty much ignore whatever a dealer says. I know some people have dealers they trust. Still those dealers cannot be perfectly objective.
Owners can’t be fully trusted either. they are going to have confirmation bias toward whatever they spent much money on. and they often just repeat what the dealer told them.
Reviewers never give a bad review. they are playing the game.
Best bet is to: 1. understand the technology behind it to figure out what is likely to sound better. 2. listen with your own ears. A physics degee helps with item 1.
OP: if you're in socal, stop by and listen to my Lampi. I haven't gotten around to selling DAVE yet so we could do an A/B.
Jerry