No More Fake Reviews - So Who’s Gonna Tell Us What To Buy?

@oddiofyl

If I can’t see it and hear it in person I am generally not interested. Lack of in home demo or decent return policy is usually a deal breaker for me.

 

Same here. 

Maybe 90% of the time reviews are just promoting a product advertised in the publication or website running the review.
Rarely is there anything negative said about the product. Occasionally there’s a rave review where you can sense it’s more than just a plug.

On the rare occasion when the product is not advertised and there’s no financial incentive to praise it, you might find a sincere review. (Absolute Sound was like that many years ago, when the late, great Harry Pearson was the publisher.)

And if that reviewer thinks highly enough of the product to actually buy it - at the retail price, you can be reasonably sure there’s some genuine value in his opinion.

Here are some examples of that sort of review:
https://silversolids.com/frames/revbuys-2.html

I read audio reviews for “entertainment” purposes only.  If they peak my interest, I do my own due diligence. 

FTC is brilliant… at rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Read Lina M. Khan‘s bio.  She is a classic study in Ivy League machinery-cog dynamics.  With her PhD (Probably hasn’t Done it), she will slay the dragon…of what?  Human behavior?  What actual laws broken will be applied to such cases?

These people have a crushing lack of understanding Homo sapiens.  She would last 5 minutes on the real mean streets of business.  The expended energies and capital on such endeavors reminds us of why an understanding of “Gulliver’s Travels” is far more valuable than that PhD… in the real working world.

Our tax dollars at work targeting fluff.  Cats chasing laser pointers.

The last thing the FTC will care about is audio. At least buyers can hear a product themselves and decide it it is good or not. Youtubers who get equipment samples to keep or flip are not their concern. Reviewers who get gear to review who require the vendor to cover all shipping costs both ways are not an issue. The targets will be mass online promoters of products who get cash or significant "emoluments" from their work will be targets (think TikTok "influencers raking in big money for promoting certain products, celebrity shills, etc.) Target industries will be ones where there are significant information differentials between sellers and buyers: health and medical, financial services and investment products, expensive capital personal goods like home construction, renovation and automobiles. Luxury goods like high-end audio carry a bias of "if you have that kind of money you should be smart enough to know better" and won't attract much interest. It isn't like audio anywhere is making billionaires.