We are buying and reviewing gear all wrong

Designing speakers is different, more art than in designing electronics, and different arts require different talents.
Gryphon also makes everything except turntables. If you like this kind of sound and have the funds - go for it. Gryphon or MBL ? Hmm, probably neither for me, I view speakers as both devices and musical instruments, but electronics and cd player - Gryphon.

This is the problem with the whole "just listen to what it sounds like" argument and opposition to measurements. Listening doesn't necessarily correlate to the complex interactions of different components. If you look at what the individual parts actually measure you can get some idea of what their interaction will be like. The problem isn't with the review process. The problem is with the interpretation of the information. Folks want to take opinions on what a thing sounds like in a few circumstances and make sweeping generalizations regardless of what the physical properties of the component are. That's upside down. It leaves you doing nothing but guess work. It's entirely possible to assemble a good sounding system based purely on measurements having never heard any piece of it. It's practically impossible to do that cobbling together components based on some compilation of opinions. I don't have the ungodly piles of money some if you do to just throw components at the problem. I have to be very analytical and figure out what measurements produce the qualities I'm looking for. It seems to be working well for me. I don't know why more people don't do that and lean on reviewers and manufacturers to produce and provide those measurements. 

Agree with @bdp2, a good dealer should have done his homework and will be offering a system that is synergistic.

Sure, but that's not for audiophiles. Audiophiles might ask for an advice but they want to be able to assemble their systems by themselves. Which in this dealer's reality would mostly involve moving boxes, cables and speakers. Real audiophiles are rarely best customers except perhaps for a handful of boutique dealers. There used to be one - HI-Fi Farm in Virginia selling very esoteric pieces. High Water Sound in Manhattan maybe.

"Buying entire systems"...Most of the audiophiles I know already own equipment.And few of us are in a position to throw out $40K worth of stuff and walk into a store and say sell me a whole new system for $50,000 that is better than the $40K one I had....So IMO no one here is in the market for an entire system. Period. Maybe??? One in five hundred, (the guy who landed a new job, the inheritance, might be out to buy a whole system. No dealer could ever make a living selling only complete systems. (except for the few years everyone wanted a ’home theater’. but that fantasy died already.)
When I retired I took a pile of cash I got and blew it on stereo junk. Did I buy a ’whole system’? no way. I bought a lot of bits, but still had plenty of old bits. And eight years later, in 2018 again spending a pile, I only replaced even fewer way more expensive individual parts.So where is the sense of reviewing something FEW ARE BUYING?There are no threads here about wanting a wholes system. They mostly are about individual choices. Single items.