Should music critics also be audiophiles?

Let 'em rip.  Loving music to the point where you make a living listening to it is a natural companion to being an audiophile. I've also always been kind of at a loss concerning musicians that don't seem to give a whit about the quality of the recorded sound they let themselves be assaulted with. Is it because their ears are so brilliantly tuned and their sense of aesthetics is so august that they consider all recorded music to be nothing more than a shadow of the real thing? Is it because they've all gone deaf because of the noise?

It's because they get more than their fill at work.  They get to be professional musicians because they practice way more than they feel like.  

The quality of the recording, at least in modern music made with modern means, should be more of a factor in music criticism. Compression, for instance, should be discussed as ain important factor that enhances or diminishes the enjoyment of a recording.

It should still be secondary to the actual performance and writing. A great sounding performance doesn't overcome the issues of terrible writing and playing.No amount of shining can disguise crap and some great songs have been destroyed by too much shining

Most audiophile magazines give recordings they review a grade for sound and performance and often discuss the sound in their review.  Many music magazines don't because people who care about sound are a tiny minority of their readers.

Paul McGowan of PS Audio posted about how he recently recorded a string quartet and had this experience:

What a great experience and I can’t wait to share with you the recording in a future Octave Records release. This particular recording will be on the upcoming Audiophile’s Guide setup SACD.

What caught my attention for the subject of today’s post was the little introductory speech I gave to the ladies before they began to play. Our producer, Giselle Collazo, asked me to brief them on what we were hoping to achieve with this recording. Soon I found myself explaining who audiophiles were and what makes us different than someone with a Sonos speaker or a Bose radio. Their blank stares were really telling.   

 Our world of high-end audio is so far removed from what people consider good home music reproduction as to be mind-boggling.

https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/relative-better/