Do Online Consumer Reviews Influence Your Purchase?

[Defshep]

Just curious. For the most part, I've found consumer reviews to be more helpful and accurate than proffessional reviews by CNET and others when it comes to longevity and value. How much stock do you put into reviews? Which sites are the most trustworthy?

[r m]

I use the reviews on epinions.com when I am researching products I am looking to buy and find it to be very helpful indeed.

[zepman1]

Actually I find the professional reviews (generally) more useful than the consumer reviews, especially for things like audio equipment and tv's. The problem with many consumer reviews is you never know what their frame of reference is in terms of product quality. Some people are happy with their standard definition TV's because they have never seen HDTV before. There are others who think that Sony makes one hell of a good home audio speaker. I am very skeptical reading reviews by consumers of high-end gear because to these people anything "high-end" will be the best thing ever compared to what they are used to.

Now reviews by people on this forum may be more useful, given the nature of the website and the types of equipment being used by many of the members here. These are people who are a little more discerning about what they listen to.

I would rather read a professional review by someone who has seen a wide range of quality products and knows what to look for when doing a review. Admittedly, these reviews can be very biased for or against certain companies, so always take it with a grain of salt.

[EdwardGein]

For me, its a combination of reviews. It definately got me to buy Orb Speakers from reading about 50 or more different people giving them incredible praise on another forum. I had never heard of them before. Circuit City reviews by the consumers are a pretty good way to gauge a product. Amazon.com reviews aren't as good because there are several idiots participating but you can tell who they are by reading the content of their review. If a source like CNEt or some other online magazine gave a product a very good or bad review, it would influence my decsion to purchase or not purchase this if the consumer reviews echoed the same. Also this board sometimes is a good sound board on products. I don't feel epinions has enough consumer reviews to influence my buying habits.

[Woochifer]

I think the most useful part of consumer reviews like the ones on this site are with identifying potential issues with particular brands and/or component models. When I was looking at receivers five years ago, I saw the complaints about recent Sony and h/k models. That clued me into specific problems about those models, so I steered clear.

The pitfall to consumer reviews of course is ferreting out the biased reviews from others written more objectively, since people who just spent a big chunk of change on a component will typically praise them to no end, while consumers with a defective unit will crucify a particular model, while others who are fanboys of rival brands might purposely post bad reviews.

Consumer reviews are also useful for seeing what people paid for a particular component.

[kexodusc]

I love reading reviews, and the absolutely influency my decision, but not by any great margin.

I try to read between the lines, sometimes what a review doesn't say (by omission) or what is said as a negative tells a lot.

Some reviews aren't very informative, so I guess I should say that I'm influenced by reasonably "good" reviews...favorable or not.

Fanboy reviews make it difficult of course, but they're pretty easy to spot.

I'll never understand what Denon and Yamaha fans have against each other or why they love their receivers in an almost religious way...

[paul_pci]

I'm most like Mr. Gein and Wooch in that I look for consistency, either favorable or incurring problems. But I'll admit that glowing reviews will get me jazzed up about a product, which is kinda irrational, but I'll come to my senses eventually. Now, back to my Yamaha shrine. I've arranged the candles in the shape of their logo.

[kexodusc]

paul you crack me up...I'm on my way back home to Atlanta tomorrow AM...I'm getting a new receiver...haven't decided if it'll be the HTR-5890 (basically my RX-V1400 but uglier) or that Pioneer VSX-1015tx...I've had a good run with Yamaha receivers the last 3 years. But I bore easily.

Sold my RX-V1400 to an Australian co-worker here...he's heading home, apparently Yamaha wants yoru first born for a receiver down there. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

[Defshep]

Good luck with your decision, Kex. Didn't know you were in Atlanta. I'm down I-75 about an hour in Macon. Tune me in sometime in the mornings on WDEN 99.1. If you can stomach country music, that is. I sometimes have a hard time with it!

[L.J.]

What, no Falcon fans in da house!

[wayner86]

I rarely read consumer reviews, when im interested in buying something i join a forum dedicated to that specific product, learn nearly everything i can about it, then make a purchase. Too much subjectivity and out right BS in consumer reviews. This forum btw.......kicks a$$!

[Geoffcin]

I rarely read consumer reviews, when im interested in buying something i join a forum dedicated to that specific product, learn nearly everything i can about it, then make a purchase. Too much subjectivity and out right BS in consumer reviews. This forum btw.......kicks a$$!

You can never do too much research before you buy. I think your too down on the consumer reviews though. Sure, there's always fanboys that blow smoke up your butt, but sometimes you get good reviews that can let you know how a specific product works with your type of equipment. Even if you go to a store an demo something there, it's not the same as how it would work in your particular case. Reading consumer reviews is how I KNEW that my amp would work well with my speakers, as I couldn't find a pro review that did.

[EdwardGein]

If a conscensus of Consumer Reviews is either overwhelmingly positive or negative, you might want to take heed for guidance. As to using only forum opinions, your limiting yourself to total biasness of people on various boards. For example, I know some expensive power cleaners are effective & produce better sound & pictures but alot of people who don't want to know will belittle this just like people did when Columbus said the world wasn't flat. Your best using a combination of forums, reviews, etc. to get a good picture of things. Also some forum people's comments should be weighed higher then others. It comes down to using your intuition from a variety of sources.

[ericl]

I think the most useful part of consumer reviews like the ones on this site are with identifying potential issues with particular brands and/or component models. When I was looking at receivers five years ago, I saw the complaints about recent Sony and h/k models. That clued me into specific problems about those models, so I steered clear.

The pitfall to consumer reviews of course is ferreting out the biased reviews from others written more objectively, since people who just spent a big chunk of change on a component will typically praise them to no end, while consumers with a defective unit will crucify a particular model, while others who are fanboys of rival brands might purposely post bad reviews.

Consumer reviews are also useful for seeing what people paid for a particular component.

Obviously, you're not going to catch me saying "consumer reviews suck", but Wooch sums up my thinking here. You have to sift through the fanboys and shills, and the people with grudges, and get down to actual experiences with the product. What issues did the person have with it? Compatibility, defects, bugs, etc? These are enormously helpful.

If you read 20 reviews for a Sony TV, and 4 of them mention the power supply failing and the TV going dead, well, then you can reasonably surmise that it's got some issues. You rarely get that from a pro review. It's just one sample vs 20 or 100.. In short, it's great for there to be as much info as possible on a product, and that's why I'm asking you all to
REVIEW THE PRODUCTS YOU OWN IN OUR REVIEWS SECTION!!!!


your pal,
Eric

[EdwardGein]

Wasn't even aware there was one here. They do a lousy job of promoting it. I'll look for it later this week.

[wayner86]

I'm not sayin that i never read the reviews, just rarely. when i do read them i usually skip the summaries and head straight for the strengths/waknesses, pros/cons, its in the forums i look for the summaries which are usually pretty concise and have lots of feedback from other forum members. I know better than to listen to "Jim" with his first post saying "so-and-so is crappy" but its in forum threads that i sift through and evaluate information, and feedback from my questions. My biggest problem with the reviews sections of many sites is, people can repost and reword a negative review under a new name.

[topspeed]

Wasn't even aware there was one here. They do a lousy job of promoting it. I'll look for it later this week.

Ummm, Hershon...*snicker*...it's called AudioReview.

Get it?