Would you donate a dollar to have these Members Review a Product?

I'm happy to review any amplifier with meters!! :-)

erik, you can be lead on any Luxman amps!  

But seriously, who wouldn't love to hear ordinary folks review stuff?  I'd love to hear what Millercarbon thought about a Luxman Class A amp versus what he/she has and how it was living with it for a month.  Then, I'd love to compare that take with, say, eriksquires.  

It might just be that one finds this as useful or more useful in some ways than reading magazines or blogs. 

Just a thought. 

@millercarbon, hope you weren't offended. I meant it as a compliment. I'd enjoy hearing 3-4 frequent flyers from these boards review stuff. You chime in with meaningful posts so you came to mind.

No, its hard to read it as anything other than a compliment.

As far as reviews go, I remain consistent in reading things differently than most people. When I go looking for something I read as many comments from as many people as I can find. The last things I did this with were Total Contact, Swarm/DBA subwoofers, Herron phono stage and Koetsu. I searched out and read everything I could find on all of these. Everything from basic research from 30+ years ago (DBA) to published "professional" reviews to even negative side comments and digs people make. Koetsu and Herron were "auditioned" on YouTube and I even called the YouTuber up and picked his brain. Called Keith Herron. You get the idea. I often say DYODD. I take my own medicine.

Doing it this way takes time and effort. But the payoff is huge. Every one of these things the surprises have all been on the upside. They all turned out far better than expected. 

I think this is because any one person can have any number of quirks, biases, strengths or weaknesses. The character of a component however is there for all of them, and a pattern will emerge. That's what I look for.

There's an underlying philosophy here that I think it would serve well to remember. I've said it before and will say it again. A good component is a good component- period! A good power cord is gonna sound good no matter what its connected to, no matter what speakers its heard with, no matter the room, no matter the music. Or its not a good power cord. Replace power cord with anything else- amp, cartridge, I don't care- same goes.

This might not seem all that important but its crucial. Bad enough to think you can't read reviews because the people all hear differently. To also believe the components are as individually quirky? Might as well throw a dart. 

My experience shows you can do a lot better. It really works for me, and I am sure it will work for you and everyone else as well. You don't have to pay with money either. Just time.

I’d pay money to read (or watch/hear) ericsquires, wolfgarcia, millercarbon, and georgehifi each receive the same amp, speaker, etc. and review it.

Do I get to keep the amp if I give a good review, as reviewers do??
Then I’m "In like Flyn"😊

Cheers George

I think I've become a single ended tube amp freak to the degree that any transistor class A or A/B or likely class D amp wouldn't stack up in my personal tube laden gear heap, so I might be useless as a general reviewer. This was demonstrated by 2 recent amps I had around for a while, a "Hot Rod" version of my Dennis Had SEP, and a Schiit Aegir. The "Hot Rod," although a slightly newer version of my amp, was slightly less powerful than my "Fire Bottle" version (with identical tubes), and somehow wasn't better so I sold it...the Aegir is simply a good transistor Class A amp and sounds like it. Sent it back as my SEP tube amp sounds utterly better in every way...more detail, more involving due to whatever tonality I seem to prefer, and just seems to make me smile.