Does it really matter what credentials any audio reviewer has? Oddly enough, I tend to find that people not tied to this hobby, such as gf/spouses and people who say "they don't know what to listen for" tend to be a lot more subjectively accurate and honest with what they hear than any of the formal reviewers. I can't seem to remember the last time I've agreed with anything that the more distinguished writers have said, including Larry Greenhill, Peter Aczel, Sam Tellig, etc... there just isn't much content amidst the flowery verbage (but the pictures are nice!), and only Atkinson seems to have any sort of reliable measurements.
Also, it's very hard to find any sort of consensus in this hobby - people don't hear or want the same thing. It's that phenomenon of hearing a setup with midrange suckout and booming bass where the person next to you comments on how "glorious" the midrange sounds and "smooth and tight" the kickdrums sound.
There are so many factors involved in these types of shootouts that at best, they only serve as an extremely loose idea of where you should START looking, NOT a final rule on how you should buy. Unless you care more about what someone else hears. But you're not buying for them... or are you?
