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.
He raised a very good point. I had a pair of mission m70 bookshelf speakers that I thought were just wonderful, yeah I never hear anyone talk about mission. I know it’s probably considered mid-fi but if placed head to head against many of the recommended speakers I think they would do quite well.