Like most people who are in the hunt for new gear I read the reviews. The trouble is, I would need to be gun sailor to make sense of the analysis. Secondly could I tell the difference between sailing a rig worth $2K and $1K? Is the price vs performance a linear relationship? I would be interested to know if equipment manufacturues have their gear reviewed by a folks with varying levels of skill.
On this site, anyone can do a review, which is appropriate, we need to know what a beginner, entry level sailor thinks of equipment, as for manufacturues?
Hazellbanger, it also depends on the level of skill you have. The more time you have on the water the more tuned you become to equipment and you're ability to discern the subtle differences becomes greater. Most of the gear is pretty good these days so magazine reports are usually good in terms of pointing you in the right direction for the level of skill you have.
the 6.6 however, wasn't even close. 
and had to use the 6.6 for a while. 
But for those who are going for that fraction of an edge, some brands set better on mast designed for that brand.
If you read the first page of the review article they usually name the testers and their skills level but it is different for each discpline. my personal view is that most people are riding gear way above their skill level. Learning to use the gear you have in varying conditions if part of the challange, I see an awefull lot of people sitting on the fence saying (I don;t have the right sail size or board for today) when they should be just giving it a go and seeing what are the limits of their skill levels with the gear they have. then progressing onto new gear once they are sure they need it.
The tests in the British windsurfing mags (Boards and Windsurf) are performed by sailors with varying skills from intermediate to expert. They have their regular testers who are usually associated with the mag, can sail very well and have tested A LOT of gear. Then they invite along a range of "guest testers", usually your average weekend punters, often people who are in the market for a new board/sail.
I found that one of the best ways to research the equipment is to go to www.zinio.com. Download the specific issue of the mag that contains the review of your board (you can see the contents page before you buy).
By reading a number of reviews from various issues, and trying to find reviews of boards/sails you have previously tried, you learn how to read between the lines of the review language (ie. most reviews are positive because they don't want to upset advertisers - but some reviews are more positive than others). So reading a single review in isolation from the rest of the article is often useless.
The tests in these mags also have useful snippets in the margins that will help you to understand the marketing information - such as volume vs width, "traditional" vs "new gen" wrt waveboards, mast/sail combos etc.
Good luck!
That Boards magazine has a lot to answer for I remember many many years back that a boards length and width gave a person an idea has to what size board a person used due to their weight and then..... the magazine started promoting "volume" they were quite persistant and the eventually the manufacturers starting using volume.
Yet now I read in the same magazine that they now think width is a better way to work the correct size board for a person and that volume is not that accurate. This magazines love to generate new descriptive words such as "new gen" and concepts.
Well it's true that most board manufacturers now have two waveboard lines.
"Traditionals" and "New Gens" sounds better to me than
"Skinnies" and "Fatties" 
