When reviewers keep on blabbering about their favorite gear and brands on every occasion, i question their partiality and motive. Give it a rest with all the AN praise, you have been drinking the cool aid, we get it !
With me, you know where I stand and my preferences - and I have been consistent for over 20 years in the things I like - and when they change - I have stated those changes.
I am not going to be one of those reviewers or individuals who pretends to have no bias - pretends to like a whole pile of stuff so that I can make a name for myself reviewing something just for the sake of reviewing and to say "ABC" is the greatest amplifier or speaker I ever heard - until the next issue when XYZ is now the greatest thing I ever heard - rinse/repeat.
I am a SET/HE speaker fan and AN is responsible for that entry point. However, since that eye-opening experience - I have liked/owned other SET/HE speakers as much - more in larger rooms.
Unfortunately, I simply do not have the space to review the large audiophile systems as I live in Hong Kong - this limits what I can bring in in terms of speakers. I would be happy to recommend Acapella speakers for example but outside of this forum where most of the posters are mega-millionaires) there are not too many people on forums asking for $80,000 to $850,000+ speakers.
At all kinds of budgets on audio forums I have recommended numerous brands: Sugden, Line Magnetic, Heed Audio, Tannoy, Melody Valve Audio, Accuphase, Luxman, Paradigm, Wyred4Sound, Shindo, Acapella Audio Arts, Rogers, Marguiles, Quad, Martin Logan, Legacy Audio, SoundKaos, Pureaudio Project, Pureaudio One, Rotel, Cambridge Audio, Marantz, Yamaha, Analog Domain, Synthesis tube amps, Meze audio, Sennheiser, AKG, Audio Technica, Roksan, Trenner & Freidl, Sound Master International tube amps, Acoustic Zen, Triode Labs, Coincident Technologies, Grant Fidelity, Opera Consonance, Shengya, Wharfedale, off the top of my head..
Most stuff is pretty darn good these days - What speaks to the individual is mostly up to the individual. That certain "something-something" magic sauce that does it for me may not to someone else. I sort of look at it like BBQ sauce on baby back ribs - most BBQ sauce is good enough but some just wow you more.
I could easily put together a very fine all-day enjoyable system from the above list of gear and no doubt many others.