I think Home Theater and Sound & Vision magazines are worth taking a look at. I think all reviews must be taken with something of a grain of salt, but these are professional reviewers taking some time to look at things.
The recent HT review of a Yamaha HTiB setup is pretty blunt about the shortcomings of the system. Likewise, they tend to talk pretty favorably about the same stuff that most people talk pretty favorably about. ie: The Oppo Blu-ray player which gets rave reviews everywhere, including the magazines.
But, I think the magazines just provide one more avenue of reporting on technology that is not often better, or worse, than what you will often find from many websites.
The hard part is that I think that websites are often VERY thin on their ability to do good reviews. Instead, we often end up with republished press releases, which are completely useless. Or, sites like Audioholics, which put out some great reviews, but are sometimes thin on photos or extensive tests - at times - and more often, just don't have the manpower to actually review the exact product you are looking to see.
A good speaker shootout I could see one journalist needing more than a month to put together, which leaves a lot of products out in the cold for that month. A good review of almost any product is likely to take a week or more after it is setup and installed. This stuff just takes time and manpower...
...which means money.
The forums are some of the best hands on reviews you can get of product, but once again, one person's opinion of something they own(ed) doesn't mean that they have any ability to compare to any other products which are out there. Lots of people in this world LOVE Bose, but they also have no idea what they are missing.
I always get my HT and S&V every month, and I like the advertisements for new products as much as the reviews. If a product has struck my interest (the LCD driven ultra-slim Samsungs) I welcome their review. Yet, if I am buying for myself, I certainly am going to the store to put my hands on the remote and play with it, I will look online for more reviews, and I will often ask a question or two on forums or look for answers already there.
Still - can be tough to get reviews on things like HVAC units for the home.
