Amazon for me, hands down.

I use either Amazon or Guitarcenter.com. If there are only 1 or 2 reviews or worse no reviews, then I'll google reviews. I also first look at the bad reviews first before I look at the high reviews.

The only problem with those kinds of reviews is that you seldom have any idea as to the qualifications of the one doing the review.

The bad reviews are far more useful than good ones, as it is becoming common practice among restaurants, manufacturers, and retailers to anonymously review their own product, service, or establishment. Some of these phony reviews are blatantly obvious as they contain language more common to a P.R. department than to a customer. Trust the opinion of people you personally know or members of a trusted online forum.;)

Exactly. If I read a 5 star review and it sounds like the reviewer is doing a commercial for the product, I disregard it. If it sounds like I was talking to a guy after a gig about his high hi stand or pedal and how he likes it, then I'll believe it. Also, I'm careful with the bad reviews too because sometimes a reviewer will be mad at the company rather than at the product. If they don't say that much about the actual function of the product but instead say how poor of service or how long it took to get it then I disregard it too.

I rely on forums and personal (face to face) feedback. As mentioned, online reviewing is a little too faceless and could in reality be anyone upset or happy with anything. YAY I GOT THE NEW DW PEDAL AND IT ROCKS....5 stars...author...DWMAN5000.

Forums can be very misleading. They are fun to bounce ideas around, talk with like minded folks, but often people on forums are just as confused as you are, so looking for precise information may not pan out that well. Not always...but often. I would say VDF is about the most well informed forum I have been on aside from the Peavey forum which is frequented by some amazing amp techs as well as Peavey reps.

What type of products are you interested in here? Drums, instruments, cars, electronics, other? Whenever possible I like to see things in person. 100 people can review a item and it can still be crap to me. If I'm making any type of major purchase I like to see it myself.

I use this site's PM system to review stuff. There are a couple "go-to" guys that I ask about stuff. They don't seem to mind answering and I don't mind asking so it works out pretty good. Or, a thread if it is drum related works too. I guess this all equates to word of mouth from "known" entities for me, as a review source.