Which reviewers and review sites are the ost reliable?

Yep, the ultimate reviewer is on both sides of your head; your ears.

Personal preferences rule, always, but that doesn't render professional reviewers irrelevant. Trained ears and broad experience is a boon in the sorting process in complex field of play. My ears can't audition every component choice out there, even though they may be the ultimate decider. 

Micheal Fremer. He doesn’t keep review samples sent to him, so people can’t accuse him of being bribed by manufacturers for good reviews.

Another vote for A.H. Cordesman. Don’t seem to hear much from him anymore however. 

@kijanki

“The problem is that everything is always positive. You can find how they classify them (A,B,C,D) in Recommended Components issue but in reviews you have to read between lines. For example "It is not perfect, but what is" statement means "It is pretty bad". They do this to keep money from advertising coming and for the same reason they don’t review some brands.”


Just about sums up every review and every reviewer that I’ve ever read.

You definitely should read between the lines.
The better ones will always give you more clues regarding performance limitations if you are prepared to read carefully.