Who do you trust?

I prefer The Audiophile Hotline

Well, you know the ads with these nice girls in front of speakers, amps....I was hoping for 20 years that women enter my room and say "wow...you have these speakers/turntable/cables/amps....I want to make love you you...right now...at once...in front of your stereo system....no, don't switch the lights off...."

*sigh*, unfortunately I had to accept the naked truth and mags are made for product placement...probably I can share some information to survive :-)
When they write...
(They mean ...)

In spite of the measurement anomalies, this speaker is clearly a state-of-the-art product.
( It didn't sound broken when we gave it our top rating )

It was definitely borderline Class A.
( It isn't that good, but it's sooo expensive, and they're letting me keep it --- G-d I feel so cheap! )

Better than amps costing three times as much.
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

Light years ahead of the competition
( The competition won't give us a review sample )

Despite it's slight problems at the extremes, the products strong point
was it's rendition of the all-important midrange.
( This thing has no bass and treble that actually hurts! )

We hire only the best writers.
( We'll hire any audiophile who recognizes a pencil two out of three tries )

This is an incomplete but promising design from a talented young designer.
( The product sucks but he has some money left in his advertising budget )

This product had me pulling one record after another from my collection.
( I listened to all five of my records )

The images in the soundstage had that elusive and seductive sense of palatable presence.
( I haven't had sex since my wife left me and I'm starting to hallucinate )

This product lacks some of the subtle refinements we've come expect from a designer of this caliber.
( The product stinks but we don't want to piss off this famous manufacturer )

Better than amps costing three times as much
( I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I like the amp )

This preamp is the new reference
( We aint giving it back, and we aint paying' for it either )

I am not sure I trust anyone, but who reads a review and buys a piece on the basis of the review. That does'nt mean everyone is dishonest, just they have other priorities than mine.

I use reviews as I think they are meant to be used, a starting off point, making you aware of a product you might never have heard of and so to go on to more research, maybe an audition.

6Moons, well at least you can say Srajan is being more honest and upfront about what happens and you can only applaud that.

Sites, magazines I trust, Bound for Sound(if it is still going) and HiFicritic in the UK, still limping along in a hand to mouth existence. Both make a virtue of not taking advertising and I am sure you can detect that. They still can't be openly critical as they will get nothing for review. I also like the online site 10audio, very good crisp reviews I can relate to, grounded in some common sense

Usually, I think we tend to trust those who see things similarly to us over the long haul the most.

Can't have trust without some common basis. For audio, for me, it might comedown to trusting someone who seems to hear the same things I do in general, and can explain how and why things they like work well in terms I can understand.

So we each might rightfully trust different people most.

A better question might be who is the most trusted by the masses? Usually the guys with the most skin in the game over the long haul I would guess.

Azjake,

If you like pop contact me privately here on Agon and I would be glad to share the ids of some folks here that I have come to trust. I doubt there would be many surprises though for those who have hung around these parts for awhile.