I am often asked “what ______ should I buy?” (Fill in the blank!) While I appreciate the vote of confidence that the person asking the question has in my opinions, it does put me on the spot.

Many times I haven’t been keeping up with the gear i’m being asked about and because of that I feel an obligation to get up to speed just to answer the question.

Of course this takes time for me to accomplish and if I don’t take the utmost care in my response, I could give out information that doesn’t serve the person asking!  That would make me feel bad.

I’ve finally found something that I can whole heartedly recommend and that is the website http://thewirecutter.com/!  I ran across this the other day and I think that these guys are on to something.

They only review and recommend the BEST products in a particular category.  They do occasionally review a next best or less expensive item, but in general, they report what in their opinion is the best available product.

They support their work by placing a few ads on the site and they also make some commissions if you buy through their links on the site.  You might feel that this causes a conflict of interest.  If you do, check out this explanation on their site:
http://thewirecutter.com/2011/10/how-to-use-the-wirecutter/ In my opinion they have removed any objections that I may have had. (Note:  Updated link 2-9-2019 – https://thewirecutter.com/about/)

Take a look and see what you think.  From now on, when anyone asks me “what ______ should I buy?” I’m going to reply “Go check out http://thewirecutter.com/!  I’ll be happier and I’ll feel like I’ve pointed the person asking in the direction!