@seanheis1 -- "Eric is a special case in that it has become a pubic dispute..."
Umm... if you had bothered to check out how this whole thing started, it was self-induced by Eric. The original ASR review, which was said the speaker was so-so rather than "bad", was in October 2023 and commenting (with no Eric yet) was over with in a few weeks. It sat dormant until February when Eric decided to get on his high horse and accuse ASR of publishing a false review. Then he threatened litigation. HE made it an issue with his accusations and threats.
(BTW, on a similar note, Bose sued Consumers Reports for a bad review in 1970. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court, Bose lost.)
It would have been far smarter for Eric to wear the ASR review as a badge of honor. No product is going to appeal to every segment of the market and plenty of people -- as illustrated in this and other threads -- don’t care for ASR’s opinion. There are plenty of buyers for the "I’m interested in how it sounds, not how it measures" products. Eric’s own behavior has likely chased away many of those potential buyers.
Plenty of small boutique audio products do just fine in spite of less than glowing ASR reviews. But, they don’t threaten litigation.