tuga
Legal Alien
Agree totally, I still sub to a couple hifi mags but learned long ago to try stuff out for myself. Forums help too, they weren’t around when I was getting into Hi Fi, it was mag reviews and word of mouth
In my view, forums and the web can help with practical issues (setup and operation) but with selecting not so much.
Ask for a 2-way monopole standmount speaker recomendation and from each poster you'll get a different reply. Some will even suggest floorstanders, others dipoles or even headphones... Surely they can't all be right.