[Philistine]

Jeff - my earlier post may seem a little negative towards reviews/reviewers, reviews are a great way to put together a short list.
I consider that TONE Audio stands out from the crowd - professional, strong ethics, relevant, fun, great layout and easy to read.  In addition Affordable Audio fills a nice niche by highlighting great sounding low cost equipment.

I guess I've been spoiled by some of the European trade publications, particularly the German mags such as Stereoplay, and then jaded by the business model used by the 'leader' in the US market.     

[rollo]

Well could not agree more the room is key. As Ethan suggested the first reflection point at least should be tamed, then Bass traps.

  rollo

[TONEPUB]

No sweat, no offense taken.

I really like HiFi+ myself..

A few years ago, I was interviewed by What Digital Camera? in the UK
about my automotive photography and I had a great discussion with the
publisher there about business models.

He told me that they typically had a lot less advertising and made their
money up on subscriptions.

I think that is a great way to go, however I don't know that it can be
supported here in the US, especially with a print magazine on such a
niche area like high end audio.

The thought of having advertising versus not is always tough.  Much as
I would like to have the ivory tower position of not taking ads, if you want
to run a magazine full time, you need to have a staff that requires everyone
getting paid.

I don't mean this as any disrespect to the rest of the online community, because
even the others have paid space on their websites.

I made the choice to have paid advertisers, but because we don't have to
print 100 thousand magazines at about $2-3 per, ship said magazines
(another $1-2 per) and have about six guys on the sales staff, we were able
to come up with an advertising figure that made sense so that it wouldn't
break any of our advertisers, afford me a decent living, allow me to pay
my freelancers decent money and not be so indebted to any one advertiser
that we felt our integrity would be compromised.

We have turned away a couple of big advertisers that wanted to buy
four pages in the magazine for that reason.  

So far, it hasn't been to difficult to juggle it all.  We have turned a few
people away, and a few people have decided against us, but it works
so far!

[JLM]

IMO:

The room is the 2nd most important component (besides speakers).  But different speakers behave optimally in different rooms with differing treatment (dipoles, "forward" horns, deep bass, etc.).  So it would be nearly impossible to expect each reviewer to have a room setup ideally for any given speaker.  Even having a comfortable listening chair that adjusts vertically, even if not practical, can have significant effect on how a given speaker sounds. 

And we've all heard/read of the advantages proported by some to put standmounted speakers on the floor and sit against the back wall on the floor (or some other silly positioning ideas).  That might have been OK when I was in school, but not now (as an AARP member).   

For speakers that it "works" for, a nearfield setup would provide the most consistent results speaker to speaker and room to room.  My room is proportioned and the speaker/chair located as per Cardas.  My speakers are 8 inch single driver (no whizzer) design, so they also help factor out the room.  I have 6 GIK 244 panels in a LEDE setup (front/side wall first reflection points and front corners).  But with nearfield placement of large/beaming drivers I'd probably make the world's worst room treatment salesman.   

Then there is the question of associated equipment (or in this case room).  Should we know what the speaker is capable of, in its ideal room, or in a more typical room (whatever that is)?  As the equipment price tag goes up I'd tend to support the more ideal associated equipment/room.  Conversely not many would build a dedicated room for small $300/pair speakers.  In that case they should be at least tried on a bookshelf as perspective buyers might actually use them.

[Housteau]

Housteau - very nice room!!! 

Thank you.  I had the room built around 16 years ago when the building costs in my area were fairly reasonable, and I did some of the work myself.  I managed it on a 15 year home equity loan, which only just recently was paid off .  As a stand alone free structure, it allows me to listen late at night (my favorite time) without disturbing anyone in the house.  My wife goes to bed quite early, because she enjoys getting up early in the morning so she has some time to do things before going to work. 

[bpape]

I agree it's tough to have a room properly treated for every and any speaker.  However, there are still certain things that will always apply.  Things like overall decay control, minimization of null causing bas reflections off the rear wall, appropriate bass treatment, and proper seating location are givens no matter what the speakers are.

Now, where your reflections fall, what/how much you do on the wall behind the speakers, etc. may change location, type, and amount - but will still be there to a point.

As for reviewers, over the years, the thing that's served me best is to listen to things that I see reviewed by various reviewers.  In that way, I can get a feel for their 'taste' in equipment. 

Bryan