'whos recommendation do you trust?' answer - none of the above
Magazines are bias.. Anyhow surely it all depends on us as individuals with different taste, ability, locations, preferences and so on.. I agree that recommendations at the end of the day are probably worthless unless you are intending to use a product in the exact same way, under the same conditions and for the exact same purpose as whoever recommended them!
However I would have to agree with Ed - 'back to back testing, new tyres under test conditions with the assessor not knowing the tyre on the car' in these circumstances seems like the simplest method with surely the most honest results :!: