The "how many reviews it got" rule

Whoa, 2psyop, everybody lies - what a world we live in.

Uh, there are perfectly good reasons why magazines won’t write negative reviews. 

and lots of great stuff never gets reviewed...

^^^^^
True. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have to remind myself every now and then that just because a particular component doesn't make a "Recommended Components" listing doesn't mean it can't hang with the ones that did. Perhaps it just didn't get reviewed.

There are myriad manufacturers out there and a finite amount of review space. Especially review space by knowledgeable and articulate writers.

I bought a component based on really great reviews in both stereophile and TAS. It cost $2,300 and was a new DAC. I compared it to my then ten year old (bought for $250) used DAC. they were the same. i spent two weeks trying to figure out why the new wonder DAC was no better than my old thing. I returned the 'new' marvelous DAC.   I continued to use that old DAC for another 8 years.                
Recently my dealer loaned me a $7000 SACD player/DAC. it was better than my old DAC. NO reviews of my new player. Gee? I bought it.