John,

what I dislike is people who post on forums in an authoratitive manner having only ever owned maybe two pieces of decent hifi in their lives. It is of course the nature of the beast, and the web is littered with critics singing the praises of the only hifi they have owned.

Forums are primarily a source of disinformation as it is difficult if not impossible to seperate these people from the truly knowledgable. It's rather like someone telling you that Piat Dor is the finest wine in the world because they have only tried that and Blue Nun.

So no need for experience when listening to music - just when giving out advice to others IMO.