Disclaimer: I'm a part time volunteer writer.
Yet even as a writer, I would never encourage anyone to part with their cash based merely off of one strangers review. Even if the reviewer does a bang up job of describing the products native performance and elaborating it in a way that will give you an idea of how that product will perform under a wide array of rooms and electronics, there is still no guarantee that the product will work for you. Plus, it's hard to gauge whether the reviewer was 'spot on' or not without having experienced the product thoroughly for yourself. Still, unless you have the luxury of having a dealer near you that A) stocks the product you're interested in, and then B) has it set up properly and is willing to give you a solid demo of that product, then the odds are likely that you will have to place some sort of value on professional reviews and user opinions as they will be the only resource available to you. Sure, 'hearing it for yourself' is the best way to go, but most enthusiasts are not fortunate enough to live an area where there is an abundant myriad of dealers to demo gear at. Thankfully though, there is the internet.
Without the net', there'd be no forums for us audio nuts to commune at. Nearly all of the manufacturers here at Audio Circle would not exist, and there?d be no such thing as webzines. Thankfully, it's all here and we are all the better for it. The only problem is that the audio business has, in my opinion, reached a point of high saturation. The audiophile consumer base is a small pond to fish from, and there are lots of manufacturers making lots of stuff for it. Most of that stuff is pretty good. Subsequently, there are lots of webzine and print publications that review this stuff. Because the stuff is usually pretty good, most of the reviews and general feedback is positive. The unfortunate byproduct of this saturation is that when you are hunting for information around the web, you will start to notice that everything begins to read the same. One man's conclusion on a product is practically the same as another man's conclusion on a similar, albeit different branded product. It creates a sense of redundancy, and it is something that can be particularly frustrating for the person who is starting off and really has no clue what type of sound they are after. There is no question that all of these things, plus the ever present fear of unethical business practices between the publications and manufacturers has damaged the credibility of independent professional product reviews. In my opinion, some of that criticism is well deserved.
However, contrary to what some people love to believe, most reviewers (who are volunteers) that I've come across strive to write the most accurate and most honest analysis they can muster. Although there are certainly a number of bad apples in every bunch, I've found that the majority of folks up who pick up the pen and write about audio gear remain unaffected by the influence of advertising revenues and all the other hogwash I read here and elsewhere. Now, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, and I'm not saying that it hasn't happened on a grand scale *cough* TAS *cough*. However, most reviews are legit, and if their review did a good enough job at describing the products general character, what it does well, and what it doesn't do so well, than their review can still serve as an excellent tool that can be useful to lots of different people. So, should skepticism be given to any review? Certainly. Should anyone go out and make a blind purchase based off of a review? Not in my opinion. But can a review still serve its purpose in both hipping you to a products existence and telling you what it?s all about? *IF* the reviewer actually did a good job? then absolutely.
