Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!

IMHO audio gear reviews are mostly for the purposes of entertainment except where objective facts are provided as part of researching gear. That is not to denigrate as much as properly categorize the purpose.  There are so few lukewarm, much less negative reviews...they are there for the pleasure of reading.

In terms of room, most reviewers know their room and their gear very well and if there is a difference by swapping out gear, they will hear it. I don't really audition gear until I get it to my room.  After hearing it in their listening room, the reviewer will say "this isn't quite to the quality of my reference piece, but it punches above its weight and anyone would be happy to have it." There are like 5 reviews in the history of audio that don't say basically that.

Finally, I believe in trained or dedicated listening, but short of an actual disability in hearing (i.e. partial deafness) I don't think you need to have the ears of a puppy to gauge gear quality. As long as you have a good baseline from listening to your own gear intently, you will hear if there is any delta.  Or you will think you do, if you spent enough on the upgrade :)

Thanks for the topic, audiodwebe.

Home in the wilds of Maine for the last 40+ years, with an enduring passion to better good sound, the journals provided much sought after information.  Music lovers are a generous lot.  JGH, HP, Art, REG, JA, Herb and others provided nourishment of music choices and audio wisdom to so many.  Oddly, the IMPORTANCE of the room - system integration is a more recent phenomenon, in my memory.  The early years focused on how a speaker measured and sounded, then reverse engineering the sound of the components through said speakers.  

There was an early focus on DIY and kits, with Phile and TAS introducing the subjective approach, others following.  Understandable, clear writing was extremely helpful in helping us build good systems.  JGH & HP broke much ground in describing sound and pioneering the language of hi-fi.  

For so many of us, Art Dudley became our go-to.  Art told stories.  Each had a beginning, middle and a conclusion.  Art brought musicianship (guitar); mechanical prowess (turntables and loudspeakers); broad music appreciation and knowledge (several genres with depth.)  The legibility of Art's writing left us thirsting and eagerly awaiting the next issue.  Both Art's sound rooms in two houses were sparsely furnished, everyday living spaces without room tuning.  Art wanted it that way.  Over time, you felt you had a trusted friend reporting his findings, with full integrity. 

Before Greg Roberts, owner of Volti Audio, moved his loudspeaker company from Maine to outside Nashville, a friend and I visited Greg to hear his horn Vittora speakers in a "Paul Klipsh ratio" living room.  Greg is a former house builder.  Turned out, Greg was bringing a Vittora set (18" active sub included) to Dudley's house the following week, for review.  In emails with Greg later, he reported that he found Art's sound, "amazing."

We live in times of distrust and suspicion.  We rarely give something, someone the time required for trust and friendship.  Wife Mary long ago that a friend is someone with whom you've worked through disagreements.  I have little doubt that many reviewers have less than optimal rooms.  I felt that way towards Art too, wondering what he would make of my obsession with room tuning, electricity, mods, fuses, dsp and the rest.  But, damn, I loved Art and others who build my confidence and trust.  

More Peace       (bold print for old eyes)         Pin

I see that many are coming to the defense of the reviewers and their rooms, which is fine.  And I agree that you can't really tell how a room sounds simply by the looks of it, but I would argue you can make an educated guess. And I would argue an "educated guess" is what some reviewers are providing their readership.

I've grown to realize that the room itself has the biggest impact on how my stereo sounds, period.  And over the years, being a service member who moved around frequently, I've had my system in many, many different rooms of all sizes and shapes.  All sizes and shapes within the budget of an enlisted service member's salary, that is.

And through it all, a properly set up room has been key to my musical enjoyment, the key to the music sounding its best regardless of the equipment I had at the time.  And more recently, I finally "splurged" on a bunch of GIK treatment which really opened my ears to what a properly treated room can do for any given stereo.  Before that purchase, I always had make-shift treatment using what I had available.  If I was going to spend a grand or two on something, I wanted it to be something that "mattered", like equipment, or so my ignorant-self thought.  I wish I would have discovered proper acoustic treatment 40 years ago!  Live and learn, obviously.

And 30-40 years ago, we didn't have access to all the information available to us nowadays.  Reviews in magazines were pretty much all we had.  Stereophile (when sized like a reader's digest), Listener, TAS...awaited for anxiously each and every month and read cover to cover and dreamt about the gear that was in them.

And those reviews, at least to me, carried some weight simply because I didn't have access to anything other than those reviews. No stereo shop near me ever carried much other than mid-fi and lo-fi stuff.  And that is precisely why I am a bit disappointed when I see the rooms from some of these "rock star" reviewers. 
Like many, today, if I read a review, it's more for entertainment purposes or to see if said gear is something I want to research further.  Everything I read is taken with a grain of salt.  But back in the day, if a rock star said it, I believed it.  Young and naive, like many of us in the beginning of the audio journey.

Man, that was long post.

@audiodwebe 

And those reviews, at least to me, carried some weight simply because I didn't have access to anything other than those reviews. No stereo shop near me ever carried much other than mid-fi and lo-fi stuff.  And that is precisely why I am a bit disappointed when I see the rooms from some of these "rock star" reviewers. 
Like many, today, if I read a review, it's more for entertainment purposes or to see if said gear is something I want to research further.  Everything I read is taken with a grain of salt.  But back in the day, if a rock star said it, I believed it.  Young and naive, like many of us in the beginning of the audio journey.

I think it's a generation thing.

Once upon a time we were more prepared to believe most everything we read. That was the way we were brought up, I certainly was.

Whereas nowadays the world is a far more mistrustful place, and quite rightly knowing what we know about politicians, journalists, marketeers, algorithms, data mining etc

As @pinthrift says,

We live in times of distrust and suspicion.  We rarely give something, someone the time required for trust and friendship.

Whereas a generation once fretted over the murder of one president and the resignation of another, nowadays we don't even blink over carefully set up plandemics, the bombing of huge gas pipes causing untold pollution and unnecessary hardship, or the coming of an Orwellian superstate that believes in rule by fear, pumping out endless bad news hour after hour.

Different times different world.

Many still hope for a return to something approaching normality, but the rest of us try to adapt as the supply of red pills seems to also be dwindling.

You always find a way to go off the rails with your replies, trying to seem normal but proving otherwise as you near the end of your posts.