Did I do the right thing?

Flex,
My apologies for missing the sarcasm, I'd actually had a few glasses of wine when I read your post.
Cheers,
Jon

Yes. Alcohol actually messes up your hearing. Ever wonder why the music gets so loud the more you drink? Perhaps this lends itself to the mysteries of reviewers' opinions, as well.( The preceeding is personal conjecture, as I do not know any reviewers personally. I have been to my share of keg parties in a former lifetime, and to that part, I can attest.)

Like a lot of people who appreciate excellent sound and/or wine, I don't have the time to audition every piece of equipment out there nor taste every wine. Accordingly, I look for opinions. Unfortunately, everyone has their own view and advice is all over the place. Just look at responses to various questions on Audiogon - 20 different suggestions to the question "What [fill in the blank] goes well with [fill in the blank]". All probably very good suggestions, but difficult to try them all.

The difficulty with high end audio is that there does not seem to be the equivalent of Robert Parker - a purely independent (i.e. not advertising supported), reasonably reliable reviewer.

At some level, I suppose I am lazy, but I can get what I need from Parker and make reasonable trade-offs among wines. Sure there may be something "better" for more money, but I know I can end up with "very good" at any cost/quality trade-off. (e.g. Why buy a bottle of Petrus when you can get a case of Lynch Bages for the same price?)

Maybe the answer is that high in is inherently more complicated with the interaction of various components, cables and listening environments. Maybe the answer is for time-constrained people like me, just about any high-end set up is better than Sony so don't sweat the trade-offs if you don't have the time.

It would be nice though, to have a Parker. In the meantime, I'll just keep reading posts here while being bored to tears on conference calls. Irrespective of what I said above, I have found them helpful.

I never make such tradeoffs. I want music, I want audio, I want wine and want it all. Excessive alcohol hurts and interferes with the sound of your system, particularly if you ralph into the power supply or your ARC SP-10. Moderate alcohol doesn't hurt a bit. There's a big correlation between audio and wine as it seems, just as there is between audio and cars. (ex-stereophile Publisher Larry Archibald, in addition to being a car collector, is a BIG wine guy, and Robert Parker is also an audiophile.)

That being said, Araujo Eisele is one of my favorite wines and I will always trade my rare vinyl for wines!! (I have doubles.)

Sincerely,

Robert J. Reina
Audio Reviewer/Musician/Wine Instructor/Investment Banker

Well depending on your age - go out and buy a bottle of Strawberry Hill and play some classic rock of the 60's and early 70's. You won't remember a thing about the deal - the headache will be enough to deal with.