Let's hear from manufacturers and dealers who are open and busy on WBF. Be honest. Would you take against anyone who logged a review that was negative about yr product? Esp in relation to another, again who is active on WBF?
When I relayed my joy at discovering Stacore, I directly compared it to Minus K and Kuraka. Jarek of Stacore has gone on to be reasonably visible on WBF. Had the other two platforms had regular input here from their manufacturers, I know for a fact I wouldn't have felt free/comfortable in reporting them less positively. And that's despite me being religious in not unreasonably dissing said platforms, striving to be practical in listing pros and cons.
So, all you industry contacts on WBF, do you have any beef w us leaving negative feedback (as long as comments are respectful and non-slanderous)?
Mostly, there are a few issues though. I'd ask that certain protocols be adhered to, especially wrt cable burn-in. When half a review is describing the sound of burn-in, and the overall tone of the review is negative, then yes I'd have an issue with it. Especially if there are no other similar reviews at all, and other reviews that are mostly positive. So if you're having an experience with gear nobody else has, maybe it's not the gear. Or maybe it is...
The issue with the above is it's difficult for designers to defend their product without looking defensive and paranoid, it's very difficult to rebut any criticism. The other major issue is it's difficult to determine why the product didn't work, and it may have nothing to do with the product it's self. The issue I have is mainly that when clarity in a system is improved often times other faults are noticed. This is very often blamed on the new piece being demo'd when it truly has nothing to do with that at all.
Unfortunately, nobody has rock-solid logic and understanding of exactly what's doing what 100% of the time in an audio system, and people are biased. I think people need to be more honest with themselves if they're really hearing a change, expectation bias is a very real phenomenon I have tested. With experience I think you can recognize the line and understand if you're reaching for something that isn't there or hearing a real change. Maybe ask yourself if you could blind A/B something, if you hesitate here maybe the difference isn't as significant as you think or is imaginary.
So, this is basically why any professional reviewer won't do a negative review. To do it ethically, one would need to test across many systems with different test subjects who can't induce bias in one another by describing to each other what they are hearing, and it's simply easier to return the gear and say, "Sorry, I wasn't able to get this to work properly in my system". Some years ago I had a different opinion, but sending cables to hundreds of people to test has given me a slightly different perspective.