You'll notice that I said " There are times where you will read that member x just ...." The key thing to notice is the wording there are times, meaning not all of the time. Regardless, I would still say that in the context of the situation I was discussing if you go to a profile and it says nothing about the members experience, if you are trying to make an educated decision about what gear to buy, best to treat a blank profile as meaning little experience. That is just common sense to evaluate opinions based on as much information as you can gather; and most certainly experience with gear counts for quite a bit. Again, I am speaking very specifically about making a buying decision based on the opinions of somebody else, at least partially. Would you really like to make a decision to buy something or avoid something based on the opinion of somebody who had very little experience from which to have a frame of reference? I know I wouldn't.
I think you over extrapolated with what I was saying and took it to mean that in my view only experienced members opinions count and therefore only experienced members should express their views. Not at all what I meant. I was deliberately using that example as it does happen from time-to-time and should be consider. Now when I first started here on head-fi, my experience with headphones really wasting particularly extensive, and as such I would not at all be offended if people took what I had to say into account, but went to more experienced users for the real scoop. Nothing wrong with that, and that is what I am suggesting everybody on this site should do. Listen to everybody by all means, even somebody who is very new to the hobby can have an excellent ear and be equally as adept at expressing what they hear to others. However; you really can't know that as easily so you should still really get as much information from the most experienced sources, and then look for a consensus opinion. I think that does not amount to ignoring seemingly less experienced members opinions, I think it is about weighting the opinions based on the best evidence at hand that you have about how reliable that information likely is. Like it or not, experience counts. I know if I'm under the knife of a surgical resident I am just that much less confident than if it is the surgical instructor with 12 years experience slicing into me. Just sayin.
Just noticed that you said no need to bristle, brother, I'm married, I can assure you some discussion on head-fi won't get me bristling, my skin is a little thicker than that. Anyway, cheers brother.