What do "audiophiles" use to judge equipment?

Specs provide valuable information required to make an informed purchase.  Without specs how would you know which speaker wire is long enough?
Specs can also be misleading and unimportant.  Discerning which spec is truly important takes either a lot of trial and a LOT of error or learning from the resources available.
I suspect that a lot of the people on this and other related forums do read music and trust their own ears and the ears of the more experienced.
To me the hobby is the journey not the destination.  It can always sound better,  there is always a new artist their is always information that I'm not aware of.

There you will find repeatedly stated the only two specs worth consideration are speaker sensitivity and phono cartridge output.

How anyone can utter such foolishness and also be taken seriously by even the few on this forum is beyond reasonable comprehension. Using this logic Robert Harley’s book should have been reduced from 596 pages to a paragraph or two.

When I inquired with Keith Herron a few years ago about matching his wonderful VTSP-360 preamp with my existing amp the very first question he asked was about my amp’s input impedance. Why would Keith have been the slightest bit concerned about such a meaningless spec? He apparently knows far less than other posters on this forum.

And why is Kevin Hayes at VAC so obsessed with the performance of his output transformers, putting tons of effort into his current delivery specs and optimizing power delivery into higher and lower impedance speakers? How misguided he must be.

Why does John DeVore believe that the entire load the speaker presents to an amp matters more than speaker sensitivity? He must be confused as well. I really don’t know how these guys ever managed to be so successful while being focused on specs that don’t matter at all.

Like with any other product, there are likely to be different segments of even "audiophile" buyers. My observations of audiophiles is that there are at least several likely "audiophile" segments that have different drivers and processes for purchasing:

1. Specs: purchasing based on how equipment "objectively" measures.
2. Visuals: purchasing based on how equipment looks. May overlap with the next segment in that impressive visuals might overlap with higher price as a means to impress others.
3. Higher Price: Based on a perception that higher price = better sound "quality" or higher price = more impressive to others.
4. Reviews: The latest and greatest well reviewed product is exciting to this crowd.
5. Listening: Equipment either sounds good or it doesn’t.

IMHO, #5 is the cheapest way to a good sounding system. Expensive equipment doesn’t always sound better. Less expensive equipment doesn’t always sound worse. Lots of good audio values out there if you use your ears.

In terms of reviews, well...I find reviews entertaining, but there's no substitute for listening. Plenty of "well-reviewed" gear has sounded surprisingly bad to me. Perhaps that gear was good from the perspective of "objective" audiophile metrics, but what they produced was not music.

@three_easy_payments:

"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! "

I'd ask you to more closley examine the OP's question  "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?" 

Keep in mind that this question followed his opening salvo:  "The hypothesis: "Audiophiles" are mostly techno-cats who listen with their eyes - they read reviews and look at spec sheets... END".

He certainly appears to be starting from a confontational and dismissive posture. The phrase "psychological hand-holding", as he uses it, comes across as mocking. 

I won't attempt to speak for anyone else, but the tenor of the OP's  language combined with a question that I cannot imagine anyone with much experience seriously asking, struck me as ignorant at best.

As I perceive his post, he very much comes across as looking to start a fightrather than intent upon earnestly defending the value of using one's own ears and emotional responses. 

How many here would seriously deny the value of listening? ? ? 

While MC's post is, as is his fashion, O.T.T.,I can't fault him for the points he brings up. They strike me as appropriate, given the OP's actual words.

Of course, you or anyone else certainly has the right to interpret the text (and subtext) differently.

Audiophiles are individuals committed to recreating the best possible sound quality and musical experience possible. The term indicates a commitment far beyond a typical music listener. The tools include listening and acquiring exceptional listening skills, vocabulary and wide range of music experience. It includes reading reviews but seldom includes paying much attention to specification. Listening tests always trump specification. Their system is constructed and upgraded over decades in the continuous effort to improve its performance.
From those generalities there are sub-groups. There are some that attempt to recreate music with absolute fidelity, some to create the most enjoyable experience to them (maybe heavy rock as imagined they heard or wanted to when young), equipment / process fanatics (enjoy the pursuit of ever better SQ as opposed to just listening), and trying to achieve the most engaging emotional experience. And folk in between different goals.

In contrast I have met some music fanatics that collected thousands of albums and absolutely could care less what they sounded like… a transistor radio or $50 turntable system was fine. The simply liked the notes and how they were connected.