1. Brand...often we form biases against certain companies for many reasons other then the truth. For instance I'll take the old style Peavey amps to use as an example (the original classic, backstage, ect...) I hated my Classic, it was my first real amp that had an balls to it. But it never was "magical".
I went years slamming Peavey (except their PA and Bass stuff, which was my stand by disclaimer then too), they sounded like garbage. IMO they did, they sounded plastic and fake.
The key thing is "imo", but my bias towards Peavey carried on and even when they started making some amps that were cool (the 5150 comes to mind which Peavey and Eddie have a story about that speaks well for both) I didn't believe it..."it's still Peavey"
2. We tend to pass total judgement, just like with my example of peavey. As a result we often go look at something, try a demo, what have you, with our minds made up. This is hardly effective at all, we really need to decide on a piece by piece basis.
3. We actually do pass judgement on products, which in the long run still is not very effective. Instead of "judging it" and saying it sux, it's a piece of crap, it's junk...ect, we should look at it as "it doesn't do what I need". Afterall one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Which leads me to number 4.
4. Peer pressure...face it, this is one of the common reasons for buying or not buying and one of the lamest approaches there is. But it happens more often then not and it really is ineffective...in the long run your peers don't matter. If they judge your talent or music by your gear, chances are they have real self esteem issues to begin with. Maybe you wont be "cool" like your friends...but you might end up a little smarter.
5. Perhaps the bigeest mistake that we all do and so often we dont think about it. We get a demo, we try it out and start pushing controls to the extreme, we expect to be able to tell if something is really awesome or really sux in that first 2 or three minutes.
But the fact is that when we demo these things we are uneducated on the product, often we're flying blind without a clue. Yet somehow we base our entire judgement on a product and sometimes an entire company by that short time period...a period of time when we didn't know what we were doing to begin with.
I'm sad to say that if I had of let go of my "rules" with some comapnies I might of been better off. It's kinda like a baby not wanting to learn to walk because at first they fall a lot and that sux, I dont fall when crawling.
I dont think we should "pass judgement" on a product when we don't like it's demo, then you cross the line between being subjective and objective. I see this here so often and with some of the same people doing it over and over. Again peer pressure comes right into play...."hmmm Hink bought that super flying hovercraft surfboard and everyone made fun of him. I really like it but if I buy it better not tell anyone or they'll be on me like they were on Hink".
I think it becomes very obvious as to what a reviewers attitude is on these things. Those who say I didn't care for it and leave it at that are often the ones to ask why. Where as others try a demo, dislike it and dis it everytime they see it mentioned..."that sux"..."what a piece of crap"..."well I had hopes for this but what do you expect from that company" really are ignorant (see note)...need proof of this read any FL thread.
It seems we would rather call something crap...even at the cost of us not getting a piece of gear we could really fall in love with, or worse convincing someone else not to buy a product that was just what they needed because we don't want to be wrong about it...all generally not based on the quality of the product, but based on our frustrations of not understanding the product.
Of course many people will not except the fact that maybe why the pluggin didn't do it for them was because they didn't have a clue of what they were doing..."it's all the pluggins fault cause I'm the balls"...not the quality of the product...I see some blatant examples here of people who just wont admit the problem with something couldn't possibly be due to their own limitations and lack of knowledge (kinda backwards huh?)
I hope this reaches one or two people and those who get what I am saying will benefit from this post. See that's what it is really about when getting something new for our artform...what are the benefits for me...not the features...not how popular is it, but what does it do for me...and for crying out loud never expect miracles, find the subtle things it does. The more complicated things will come from understanding the samall things.
Yes there are those who will stay pigheaded, I think it's wise to regognize this pattern in people, and the pattern is easily recognized...those constantly have something bad to say about something, as if they are on a vandetta against the company, those who start over embellishing and throwing in as many swears as they can, those who almost seem to bully their opinion on you should be completely ignored.
Try it, don't expect miracles and try it enough to see if it fits you needs. Use other folks reviews as guidelines, not the gospel truth. If someone keeps jsut bashing something try to see the red flag and look for more objective viewpoints...but most important just never say never...never is a very long time...
edit...forgot the "note"
in the case ignorant is not an insult, it simply is using the word correctly...ignorance is not knowing...we all are ignorant on somethings...