@thespeakerdude While I cannot comment on the rest of the review / reviewer’s setup that you shared, I can say that the Borresen M1’s were placed not too far from walls when I heard them at the Florida Audio Expo. On top of that, there were NO treatments in the room at all. Yet it was still one of the top three rooms, if not the top. That said, we cannot judge the room by the speakers themselves. In addition to the $100K M1’s, there was probably $1MM of electronics, furniture, and tweaks to support them. The integrated was $70K. Ansuz cables and distributors, and Aavik electronics don’t come cheap. I think the speaker cables they used were about $65K MSRP! And peeking behind the gear, they had dozens of their SORTZ tweaks plugged in the different units. Their rack, using the DARKZ for resonance, also adds $$$. They all make a difference but delivers deceptive perceptions to anyone who thinks they will get the same performance from the speakers in their own system, unless they are investing in all of the other variables. The speakers did sound exceptional regardless, except for the bottom octave which I craved more from at times.
You’re not alone on the professional review front, though. More and more I find reviewers who do not have adequate space to properly evaluate, or have no understanding on how to pair gear, or even write in ways where they are accurately describing the characteristics of a component vs the effect it has with their system synergy. It’s because of this that I shy take any review with a grain of salt, and oftentimes disregard them altogether.