Having not shopped on Amazon for years now, I'm sure the problem has only gotten worse but for a while an easy to use heuristic that I would personally apply was to strip all 5 star reviews, check for a minimum number of reviews, recalculate the final rating, and then read through some of the 3/4 star reviews.

These days I make it a general rule to find AMZ alternatives particularly for highend items.

- Electronics: B&H

- Music Equipment: Sweetwater

- Computer related: Local Microcenter