Am so glad you mentioned this, David...MOST professional of you.
Audio, as in most things in life--whether it be the brand/model of car you select, the particular sports attire you choose, the brand of wine you choose over another, even though one 'professional' reviewer will give it a thumbs up while another will give it a 'so-so' rating, etc, etc, etc--is so SUBJECTIVE...as long as all things considered, the products in question are of SIMILAR VALUE/QUALITY, then there is NO one single best product...if that were the case, hardly any competing companies would be in existence....what is 'bright' to one person is wonderfully revealing to another...why do you think we have people who love the sound of tubes and those who instead perfer SS...both are different sounds, but to each is wonderful and spot on.

For example, I have an SVS subwoofer (20-30pc+) and in NO way consider it better than a Hsu...I chose it due to a deal I managed to get and also that Hsu for a while there had no distribution in Canada, which is where I live...thus I chose the SVS....both subs are wonderful, as far as I'm concerned, both similar quality, built by people very knowledgeable in the industry and with a passion for audio and passing on such a great product to their customer.

Whenever people start knocking other products and get into some self-righteous mode, it really does seem like they're back in kindergarden and takes away from legitimate inquiries and discussion.

Just my 2 cents.