When we read a review we understand that the conclusions expressed by the reviewer are matters of opinion.
How much we pay attention to that review depends largely on how much we do or do not value the opinion of the reviewer.
If it's a Yelp review of your local restaurant you'll likely see every opinion under the sun: "Best meal I have ever had", "Worst meal I have ever eaten".
How do you make sense of that?
If it's a HiFi review it gets a bit easier. We tend to value the opinions of reviewers that we trust. That trust being built up over years of reading and agreeing or disagreeing.
When it comes down to it, we find people with similar tastes to our own and then mark their opinions as more valuable than those of others that aren't like us.
A reviewer is a surrogate that helps us quickly evaluate the myriad of gear we haven't the time nor the access to try for ourselves.
Of course, surrogates are not carbon copies of us.
They can help narrow the field but, in the end, we're the ultimate reviewer.
