The number one thing that I want to know about reviewers, particularly when they are past 70, is their hearing test. Most of us in the hobby are around that age and we all have some frequency loss somewhere. It just doesn't make sense to hear Reichert or Valin or Fremer go on about how they went to the original Same Goodys and then accord them Golden Ear Status. However if I know that their deficits are similar to mine then I can put their reviews in a meaningful context
Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!
It’s almost sad, really. Some reviewers I’ve been reading for decades, when showing their rigs on YouTube, have absolutely horrible rooms. Weird shaped; too small w/o acoustic treatment; crap all over the place within the room or around the speakers; and on and on.
Had I known about the listening rooms they use to review gear in the past, I would not have placed such a value on what they were writing. I think reviewers should not just list the equipment they used in a given review, but be required to show their listening rooms, as well.
Turns out my listening room isn’t so bad, after all.