Australians have www.choice.com.au that use a subscription model to monetize rigorous product comparisons for big ticket items. I'm not sure what the options are in other countries. Obviously there are special purpose publications like DPReview and Anandtech
I find things like CR or choice really good if your needs align with the standard consumer's.
One example is I'd probably recommend you look at office chair recs from them if you were a male between the 20th and 80th percentile in height (or a female in the male ranges) and weight who only uses the computer for work. If you were like me, a woman who's 5'3" with the legs of somebody 5'1" who sits at the computer for hours, those recommendations wouldn't work. (They also wouldn't work for Yao Ming).
