avanti1960
I believe I saw your similar comment on the Stereophile site.
I generally agree with the response you received from Stereophile.
Many readers take Stereophile reviewers opinions to have some weight and influence (in fact, obviously they have influence - great reviews can make or break a company's product).
It makes sense to me that a reviewer would therefore be wise to understand the influence they wield, and act wisely and cautiously in doing so.
If a company is introducing a new speaker or whatever, and simply from hearing it briefly at a show a stereophile reviewer utterly pans it, that can have very serious effects on the future of that product or company.
Given how difficult it can be to work within show conditions - many hotel rooms are just HORRIBLE for acoustics - they wouldn't be doing a "favor" to anyone by panning a product based on such an encounter.That actually isn't what a responsible person would do.
If a set up seems to sound bad in a hotel room, there's every chance it's due to the challenges of setting up for a show (which most of us have no experience with...no doubt even more of a challenge than we imagine all things considered). So it makes sense to withhold some judgement.
But if a system produces GOOD sound at a show, well, hey that's worth commenting on. Why not? It's not like the reverse where a decent speaker can be made to sound bad under bad conditions. A speaker generally isn't going to be made to sound "great" under bad conditions, so it makes sense to report "this system sounded excellent."
All that said, I do find that Jason S of stereophile tends to hold the least punches and seems to "tell it like he hears it," pointing out aspects of the sound he liked, or didn't quite like. Though he is careful to qualify the tentative nature, could-be-due-to-any-number-of-show-condition-factors, of his experience.