New-ish to Audiogon Forums... Is it always like this?

The observations about people posting their favorite is is correct and it actually gets worse than that.

There are posters here that always recommend something they own, or want to own, regardless of context.

There are posters who denigrate other suggestions, based not on sound, but on where the product is manufactured.

There are posters who recommend or denigrate products they have never heard.

So you have to sort out who is making the post and whether the suggestion has limited or any value at all.

Overall, this is a good forum, and you can get some very useful information, but it takes some time and patience

Recommendations are merely subjective and should be considered as that. There is always useful information from valued members even if it takes some time to decipher their style or way of thinking, so you always learn.
Just keep searching and try to read all or most posts.

G

Alta Moro Amp  you'll like it

@grinnell - lol. I hope you were joking at least.

Thanks for the replies, it's good to hear that there are some diamonds in the rough. I'll keep an open mind, appreciate the good posts, and try not to let the noise bother me. I mean, it is the internet after all.

Cheers!

many of the comments made are accurate and insightful

i would only further add that this is an open forum, there is no qualification checking or needed to post... so as said earlier one needs to hang out here enough and understand (and research, via past posts) who the poster of any particular comment is

you can see how many posts a member has, for each comment posted, then you can click ’details’ of the username, see their history of trading gear, their feedback score, and importantly, whether they list a ’system’ with photos of it

there are some famous/infamous folks here who are provocative, seem to live here with no other meaningful life activity, been kicked out for their bad behavior, then come back repeatedly under new usernames... this classic ’troll’ pattern is
-- 'joined date' just 2-3 months ago
-- over 1.000 posts in that short time
-- zero history or user feedback as equipment trader
-- no system listed no photos
-- yet post after post, denigrating, arguing, being a ’know it all’