Alan
Please understand I am not trying to be confrontational as I don't know what steps and in what order a reviewer does his evaluation
I do agree that we are humans after all and no one is perfect
Well the point is to remain neutral and objective when reviewing any component. The reviewer's ultimate goal should be to describe the sound of a component, without their own prejudices, so that the reader can in their mind recreate the sound of the DUT. That's why I though John Nork was an excellent reviewer. He had the ability to remove his preferences from his reviews.
1.) It's impossible to ignore manufacturers measurements since some of these are needed to make sure there's no unaccounted for interactions between components or speakers/amplifiers.
2.) It's also necessary to look at the measurements say in the case of a small speaker like the Alon Adriannas I reviewed years ago, as to whether they sound like they really extend down as far as the measurements might indicate. (and of course many factors, electronic and room enter into this picture.) I might also use something like the Goldline analyzer (
http://www.gold-line.com/pdf/manual/pa_30m8.pdf) to check out the speaker/room interactions. Granted it's not the most sophisticated thing available, it does the job that I want.
3.) I think that reviewers on the whole spend more time and have more experience positioning speakers for the best sound than the average audiophile. A lot just comes down to time. Also, they may have the ability to try say more than one amp and speaker cables with a given speaker.
4.) If it measures good and sounds good, it is good; if it measures bad and sound good, then you're measuring the wrong thing.
5.) I'm always curious about the measurements but I don't let them sway my final conclusion. One thing though. It's great that SS and SP attempt to do more sophisticated speaker measurements; however, these measurements are rarely, if ever, done in the reviewers room. So there's always a disconnect between the measurements and the reviewer's perceptions. And as Jeff and Sean have pointed out, different speakers present different problems with room; how about an omni-directional speaker such as the MBL101s that probably excite the whole room. I don't think very many people have heard what these speakers can actually do eg. every time I've heard them at a show, they've sounded awful. And I might have concluded that's the way the sound, if I didn't hear them at a colleague's home where he had the right room for the MBLs. Again that's where the measurements will help in determining in the final estimations on whether a given speaker will work in a wide variety of rooms.