Internet reviews are a really good way to identify some of the best, most consistently good-value products in almost any hobby or field. If you look at this sub, you would think there are only a dozen brands in the entire hardware industry (I even made a meme about it).
There is so much great gear out there that you will never find reading reviews and forums. Not that there’s anything wrong with LS50’s and Schiit and Topping and SVS and Monoprice. But I think we would all do ourselves a favor to try to listen to a wide array of equipment, especially used equipment, which is often fantastic and worth 10x its cost in sound quality.
The market for ultra expensive, low volume gear is more like the market for unique art items or very high end watches rather than mass manufactured electronics. To me a $50k monoblock amplifier seems more like a modernist sculpture that happens to also amplify electronic signals.