03-10-09: Mrtennis
an intelligent person will not rely on the opinions of strangers. regardless of the motivation, it is useful to use your own judgment
"A smart man learns from his mistakes, but a truly wise man learns from the mistakes of others."
While I do agree that there is no substitute for listening in one's own room, with one's own gear and ears, there is simply too much gear out there to make this a realistic possibility. How can one try well over 1000 speakers, preamps, amps, not to mention cables in their own system? So some form of human interaction can be a positive act in narrowing down the choices. The key is to understand the poster's musical values to some extent. If I know the poster likes fast, neutral, transparent gear, and I like warmer, more musical gear, I can then pass on his recommendations.
For example, from reading your threads MrT, I feel that you like syrupy sweet, over ripe sound, in the opinion of most here. I like it on the warm side of neutral, but not as dark a flavour as yours. So I would take this into consideration regarding any recommendations that you have to make.
Cheers,
John