Right you are: listen for yourself.
You should always check out previous posts on a variety of topics made by anyone you are thinking of accepting as your guru.
Usually the majority view on a topic is worth looking into, and the existence of a home trial policy lets you avoid buyer's remorse with new items.
To arbitrarily ignore reviews and the threads that follow would be depriving yourself of one of Audiogon's strengths.
Also, it is still a sign of good character for Stereo_phile to admit what caused a biased or inaccurate comment.
It is going on five years that Reality IC's (the OFC RCA jack option is worth the extra cost) and speaker cable reside in two of my systems, never displaced after years of listening for myself. As far as Gregg's website appears to me, his wonderful wiring is still basically made as it always has been, a tribute to getting it right (I have said this in posts elsewhere, but it is what I believe).