Feel the same. Guess I want both. Have a very hard time with electronics unless I hear them at home in my system so even a demo in the store is not enough unless everything else is the same. One shop used to let me take multiple floor models home (cables too) and demo for a few days with everyone else before making a decision.

Great observation. It’s really tough. Places on the internet tend to be an echo chamber of view points and hostile toward alternative views.

I’m lucky to have great shop in Portland (Echo Audio) that buys & sells nice used/vintage equipment at fair prices along with new equipment they feel is a good value when new (for instance KEF) so a person can listen to a variety of different things in person and decide for themselves instead making a decision based only what they read online. Will admit that I have purchased a variety of things over the years based on what I read online without listening to it first and regretted it every time (for instance equipment from Schiit).