Highly Questionable Music Suggestions.

’High-End’ audio gear is tested and judged by how it reproduces sound, not music.
I think the logic is, if this solo acoustic guitar sounds accurate, so will LvB’s 5th.

Why not just test using Beethoven? Then, no one would hear any difference. Or at the least they would not be able to even imagine they hear a difference.

The situation you mentioned is the same on you-tube. Guys show off their systems, but seldom use real music.

One audiophile, on Steve Guttenberg’s vlog, even admitted he was into sound, not music.

Good observation.

Cheers

All your points are well taken @rok2id .  I have a USB Hard drive with all my music on it. It has a directory named "DEMO" where a copy of all my favorite demo tracks live so I don't have to go searching and even worse remember where I hid all the good stuff.

On point, I think, but not often addressed.

If you don't know the music in a review how could you relate to the findings. A corollary, if you don't know the reviewer, his room and his stuff, how could his review be meaningful to you except in finding a consensus.

By way of example I read a review about a year ago extolling the virtues of an integrated amp, including its imaging. But I also saw photos of his system set up. Not SOTA, in fact substantially compromised. He could not have heard what he described, especially as he described it. I no longer take any interest in his reviews. 

When it comes to reviews of music, personal taste is an even bigger factor than in reviews of equipment.

Every month when I get my audio magazines, I check out the music reviews and listen to some of the albums that get great reviews. Usually I end up wondering how the hell those albums ever got recommended and why the really good albums with really good sound that I’ve found recently never get a review. It’s just the way the world works.

I’m really happy to be able to stream music. That way I don’t buy a highly praised album only to find that I don’t even want to listen to it all the way through once.

In reading reviews in the magazines, I usually go to Spotify to check out the music used by the reviewer in reviewing the product. Most of the time, there is no way that a competent review could be given considering some of the out-right crap these guys listen to. The same thing goes for music reviews in the back pages of the magazines. These magazines have become nothing more than advertising vehicles to make money.

J. Gordon Holt is spinning.

Frank