First please do not take my post as a criticism. It's just some of my observations in general and not being specific to anyone.
I wish that reviews, in general, and not just in audio reviews, that the reviewers are a bit technical. I'll use car reviews as an example so to steer away any feeling as I am being critical. I've read a lot of supercar reviews that I feel that the reviewers may not be qualified. Sure, they could "drive" the car, but they don't present themselves as "worthy", for lack of a better word. Some of them are just "young kids" and I am not sure how they were able to obtain such expensive cars that I have seen a lot on youtube. Supercars are not just "cars". They represent the best of the breeds, and they do deserve a "worthy" reviewer, someone who has a sophisticated understand of car and who actually can drive a car properly on a race track. I'd say if you cannot properly make a turn on a race track, then you're probably not qualify to give a meaningful review of a supercar and that is certainly a minimum requirement (but by no mean the only requirement). A person may probably be qualified as a Toyota reviewer but he or she may not be qualified to review Ferrari's.
Along that vein, I wish some who have reviewed audio equipment are a bit well-versed in the technology. I'd take an example in the so called "upsampling" technology, which was a bit of a fad back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. You couldn't read a magazine without that word on it and any piece of digital that didn't have the "upsampling" claim was looked down upon like some old outdated thing. Back then, I was dead poor so the only way for me to experience "digital porn" was through either online or print reviews. I was using a NAD 540i lols. And of course "upsamling" was quite a thing back then, but after having read multiple digital reviews that had talked about upsampling techology, I couldn't still understand "what the fuss" because most of the articles/reviews couldn't quite articulate what actually was "upsampling". I finally found an article, and after having understood "what the fuss", my conclusion was "upsampling" was basically what it was - mostly marketting gimmics. Yes, it did make a difference in sound, but "better"? Probably not. But anyway, my point was if most reviewers were more technically savvy, some of the technical "thing" could be better explained and the readers can be better educated as well and there'll probably be less frustration along the way. I you look hard enough under this forum, you probably would see a post of mine talking about "upsampling". I had some dude thanking me like you wouldn't believe it as if he finally saw God lols. I don't know if the forum goes back that far. It was probably around 2004 or about? So far back that I don't think GeoffKait was even born yet :-) (It was a post made long long time ago in a forum far, far away.... )
I think the minimal requirement for a speaker review is at least a frequency response measurement, which is not that hard with the given technology nowaday, and it costs less than $100 dollar to obtain the needed equipment. I hate to say it but a freq. response is really worth a thousand words, no disrespecting anyone. I bought mine from PartExpress and it came to about $80.00, gives or takes. And with the proliferation of more and more DSP speakers, some real technical knowledge would help a lot. Reading a speaker review, I would need more than just the usual cliche "ooohhh smooth treble, tight bass, ... the usual ... "it got the mid range right...", and my favorite "I can't tell if there's an xover in there ...
And with new streaming technology, a thorough understanding of the basic underlying digital theory would be a plus. With better understanding, the reviewer would be less likely to be "enamored" with the technology, and therefore more likely to have a more neutral and more informative approach and less likely to be fallen into a trap of just "paying lip service" for the technology. I would prefer a reviewer who is "better" than the technology, not the other way around. And it's true not only in audio reviews, but any review in general, be it car review, audio, medical equipment ... and so on. It's like going out with a "girl" who you are better than, makes things easier :-) (Although it doesn't hurt if she's better looking)
