The "how many reviews it got" rule

I to Fall for the same basis principles of marketing. Reading about audio stuff and discovering music, new equipment , people that write nice stories, etc etc. This gets me entiusiast about something that I also like to discover. It is to me a valuable  and fun part of the hobby. 

Frequently it sends me in a direction tot explore. If there are more reviews the feeling grows and changes are that that product got reviewed by me.  
If there is a chance or most of the time a need to buy. (Replacement , upgrade, bored) 

But I never buy something that has not been heared by myself in my room and system. Many reviews despite.

“Online” buying on a basis of a lot of reviews is not for me. 

Noting so subjective as “audio”. 

Try writing a negative review about a Bose product.  See where that gets you.  Just sayin'.

Huh? Nobody gives a crap about Bose. We want to see expensive stuff reviewed. The more expensive the better!

It's obvious that people only review gears that they like.  I don't know of anyone would go out of their way to bring a bad component they don't like to their place and waste their time for a couple of weeks just for the heck of it.
Therefore if a gear is being reviewed, it's most likely a quality component that they already like.  Some have brought up the issue that Stereophile only reviews established brands, well it's the same reason I only purchase components from establish brand because I don't want to take the risk just as Stereophile probably doesn't want to take the risk of reviewing some suspect components that may go out of business the next year.
Now the other issue that brought up is that do any reviewer just outright lie?  Turning a bad component into a good one.  If they did that, I don't think they would be in business for very long.  I doubt a lot of reviewers do that.  Some have brought up this issue but I am not sure there was any evidence other than hearsay. 

But it's probably true that some established professional magazine such as HiFi+ or Stereophile do have their preferred brands but that does not mean they misrepresent themselves in the reviews.  It's like advertisements.  Their ads money may steer them toward a certain brands than others but that does not mean their reviews are less than honest.

It is a business.  The reviews are for information purposes only.  They are not written to say this one is better than that one.  They compare what the reviewer hears in their system, not yours.  Use them as a guide.  Once you read a review, go hear that component at a dealer to see if you hear what the reviewer is writing about.  If you hear what the reviewer comments on, then you can understand the reviewer and how they hear sound.  Also, small companies and start up companies do not get reviews, understand why?

Happy Listening.