What is wrong with the credibilty of a person contributing HERE regarding the sound of a given component as long as we know A.that person has been in the hobby for 5 years or more (although 15-20 would be even better) and B. they have owned and listened to the piece in question for 6 months or more, in a creditble system in a room with at least "average" acoustics. by that i mean NOT a 10 x 10 bedroom or den, or a 30x40 foot meeting hall. I would submit that such a person has invested the time and money to get to a place where they are really enjoying what they're hearing, and they are NOT part of a commercial for Wilson or any other company with an abundance of advertisements in a given publication. IF we can agree on these standards, then i challenge anyone to question that person's sincerity.
Professional reviewers certainly do have some insights on technical features of components and get to interview manufacturers, take factory tours, go to CES, etc., so that is definitely valuable. and 95% of them write really REALLY well so i have no qualms about that. but they jump around from one product to another and you can't really see, other than price, just WHY they are so enthusiastic about certain components, and why they almost always conclude that you "get what you pay for". Take the Wilson XLF speakers for example. no question they are excellent speakers, but for $10,000 you can also buy "excellent" speakers (like the Aerial Acoustics 7T for example). Go ahead, crank the Aerials up, they can fill up your room without the slightest hint of strain. so can a myriad of other speaker systems costing as little as $5,000.
Do you really need a $200K speaker, or would you be better off going to concerts, or finding a friend who could expose you to different genre's or new composers (there are SO MANY to discover).
When are WE going to get together and enlighten one another rather than argue over which reviewer has their "stuff" together? when that day comes, we will have a reliable database of meaningful insights of which components are truly wonderful sounding and which manufacturers are doing their best work and providing the best service.
