Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!

I just finished Stereophile’s review of the Klipsch La Scala. Obviously we all know they are super sensitive, super dynamic & can crush just about any other speaker out there in terms of pure undistorted volume with not that many good watts. They only compared it to a 60 year old Altec Valencia! How about compared to speakers of a similar price range in terms of high frequency detail, imaging, low end detail ( did mention it cuts off around 50 hz). 

Funny. My brother just bought a mint pair with upgraded crossovers and powered by a Chinese variant of the LSA amp it just sounded slow, lethargic, and without resolution to me. It is incapable of boogie, of PRAT, of much other than tone. It reminds me of Grandpa's Buick Roadmaster badly in need of new shocks, struts, rubber, and an alignment. It reminds me of Koss 4AA headphones-the real sh*t in the day but that day is long gone. The S'Phile review? I suspect something is badly wrong in Denmark. Fish wrap. 

Yes indeed, I too have had multiple conversations about reviewers' listening rooms with my audiophile buddies. The clutter, the tiny rooms, etc ... They look to be FAR from ideal. I'm assuming most of what they're doing is near field, otherwise the busy-ness of the spaces makes me wary of their reviews... Take everything with a grain (giant block) of salt.

@mikekuller yes, Herb's room is certainly not something to write home about, but he has the gift of critical listening. His reviews are outstanding, always an enjoyable read. He and the late Art Dudley are/were my favorite writers.

Art Dudley appeared to not use much if any acoustic treatment in his home listening environment.  Look at some of his videos, where he has those large Altecs in a room with no treatment I could see.