I've been reading a great number of threads with considerable interest on
here recently, and I've arrived at the conclusion, the biggest single factor
when buying audio equipment, is the badge placed on the front of it.

Lets take a look at Hi-Fi reviewers who work for magazines, I've read
hundreds of reviews over the years. How many people have they brainwashed?
How many perfectly acceptable pieces of Hi-Fi equipment have they crucified?
What qualifications do these people posses?

An amp that sounds like a tom cat being castrated without an anaesthetic to
them, may sound wonderful to someone else. At the beginning of the year, I
read two reviews on a Sony AV amp, one thought it was the best thing since
sliced bread, the other slated it!

Perhaps a good test for a reviewer would be to give him a listening room and
ten top of the range amplifiers. Let him keep them for a week and listen
until his hearts content. Then bring him back in the room blindfolded and
ask him to identify each amp as it is played back to him randomly. I suspect
the results would be very interesting!

Surely, at the end of the day, buying and listening to Hi-Fi is totally
subjective?

Cheers
tox