What is wrong with a newbie starting their “research “ here? What are the alternatives? Equipment magazines tend to be aimed at the true believers, not at entry level curious. If the newbie wants vinyl then after reading Stereophile they might think they need to spend $200K after reading Fremer. Magazines also tend to reflect the biases of their advertisers. The best thing is for a newbie to throw mud at a wall in a site like this, get a variety of opinions, see what opinions make sense to them, and go from there. With the loss of stores, the chances of a demo of anything are slim and so the opinions of others are now increasingly important