What do "audiophiles" use to judge equipment?

Question posed by OP:

Are there any others who trust their own ears and go into a music store and BUY something without the psychological hand-holding of a forum or spec sheet?

Response by MC:

You are very confused.

Search through my posts. Highly recommended, highly educational.

OP's question dismissed out hand.  How dare you inquire whether you can just use your own ears and emotional response to the gear you're auditioning!  You're confused and the only antidote is to search MC's posts to give you the exact hand-holding that you'd deliberately like to avoid.  No one can do this properly just using his own ears....please go read everything ever written by MC and avoid such a costly mistake as trusting yourself.

I've been fortunate to find a good dealer who's tastes mirror mine and I always trust my ears and my dealers advice.

@cmariner1  Robert Harley's well-known Complete Guide to High End Audio provides some very sensible approaches and considerations to purchasing components or a complete system.  He outlines very well the role that specs, reviews, speaker/amp synergy, dealers, listening, and individual needs/tastes play in making good decisions.  The reality is that there are a myriad of considerations that all do matter - some more than others.  I suggest starting with a guide like this and certainly not getting bullied into taking advice from "some dude" on the internet who publicly dresses you down by concluding: 

In short your "hypothesis" to the extent we can glorify it as such, bears at best a tenuous relationship with reality.

@three_easy_payments 

MC believes that posters use his posts as reference. No jokes - he honest-to-God actually believes that. 😂🤣