>> Do you have any evidence that says Consumer Reports is never wrong?
There is a common belief that one "can't prove a negative", which, actually is not true. It is often more DIFFICULT to prove a negative assertion, but they can be proven. (google "prove a negative" and you will see what I mean about the misconception).
Consumer Reports does just that, they REPORT. They report on the results from consumer opinion surveys, they report on their own researchers experiments and tests.
But, note, Caymen, I said that they report on "opinion surveys".
Go back and re-read my point about "opinions" being subjective, and perception being subjective, and therefore seemingly quantitative things like "quality" actually varys from person to person.
However, if you have a "supposedly" unbiased organization like CR, and they use a large enough sample/opinion pool, than we SHOULD assume their reports have merit.
We may not agree with them whole-heartily, and we may have emperical evidence that contradicts the reports, but we can't in good, logical conscience dismiss them is WRONG. Their reports have value and merit.
Does that mean that CR never reports a clunker as a winner, or vice-versa...no, of course not. Given the years they have been doing this, and the number of surveys and opinions they have published, I am sure a few times they have bet the wrong horse.
Look at it this way. Maybe you are a person that likes the Strawberry ice cream in a box of Neopolitan, I mean you REALLY, REALLY like it! However, a VERY LARGE sampling of people were surveyed as to their preference, and only 10% said they preferred the Strawberry over the Chocolate and the Vanilla. Okay, you get the picture? Now, given that picture, would it be "right", or "valid" for you to say:
"Those people that don't prefer Strawberry, they just don't know ice cream. Strawberry is the best. I have always had more pleasure from eating Strawberry and my friends all like Strawberry. I'm sorry, but I just DON'T BELIEVE the survey!"
TJR
