Same here. It's why I avoided the hobby for years and years. Those magazines like Stereophile were caught in an unavoidable spiral. They were reliant on advert

Same here. It's why I avoided the hobby for years and years. Those magazines like Stereophile were caught in an unavoidable spiral. They were reliant on advertising dollars from the snake-oil peddlers. The good news is, you would not be alone in the hobby these days - there's a really robust segment of the hobby who holds that snake oil stuff in utter contempt. AudioScienceReview is a good objectivist community; NYT/Wirecutter's audio coverage is commendably reality-based, and so on.