Sjofen The Clue speakers

I'm guessing you've not heard the speakers Onhwy61? Those are only some of the facts. The most relevant facts are that these speakers depend more than most on being set up properly for a given room, and that both buyers and reviewers are offered access to the manufacturer to help them get it right. And the reviewer knew this going into the review. When they're not set up right they will sound bad in exactly the way he described, and that's the review we got. Hence, the review is no way near accurate as you assume. That the speakers performed poorly precisely in the areas where they are supposed to overachieve (and they do) is a big red flag for a reviewer. Again, there is no excuse for the reviewer not at least contacting the manufacturer to see if something either A) might be wrong with the speakers or B) needs to be changed in setup or associated equipment. It's just common sense of you want to make sure you're providing an accurate assessment of a piece. Further, all the owners and reviews I've seen have nothing but glowingly positive impressions of the speaker. In fact, other than this turd of a review I've never seen a negative comment about these speakers. If they exist they are in the vast minority. Yet another red flag that would've led a competent reviewer to at least ask some questions. So your suspicion that a large number of buyers have noted the tonal imbalance is also unfounded.

I know plenty of reviewers and they all say almost all equipment that gets to the point of a review these days is at least decent or very good and very rarely does something sound significantly flawed to the level stated in this review. No publisher wants to review crap when there's so much good stuff out there. If something sounds that off they always check with the manufacturer or distributor to check on A and B mentioned above to make sure they're reviewing properly functioning equipment the way it's designed to be used.

To answer your question, I heard the speakers at a show in the stacked configuration in a horribly configured hotel room. I thought there's no way something that looked like that could possibly sound coherent or even decent in that room, but they sounded downright incredible. I agree with you in most instances that if a reviewer does what this guy did it should result in a fair assessment of a product, and since you probably haven't heard the speakers I certainly understand your skepticism. But this is a different kind of product where something a little more than the standard review tactics were required. And what's worse, the reviewer heard the speakers before and was so impressed he asked to review them, so he already KNEW going in how they were capable of sounding. Any more competent or seasoned reviewer would've caught this and the review would've turned out quite different. The saddest thing is that this piece of crap review could end up seriously damaging a small company that's putting out a truly outstanding and innovative product at an incredibly affordable price point. Again, S'pile should be seriously ashamed of themselves.

Soix, the reviewer claims he set them up in accordance with the manufacturer's written instructions. Are you saying he didn't?

He used the quick setup guide they provide. It is not meant to be optimal for every room. Read Croft's response in Rebbi's link. It aptly points out the ways the 'pile failed in this instance. And again, as a reviewer who somehow made it to Stereophile he should've been been more thorough in his process to insure he was providing an accurate assessment of the speakers. Ditto JA.

JA and Stereophile will deny what I'm about to say, but I will say it anyway: if a reviewer were having this kind of trouble with one of their major advertisers' products, you'd better believe they'd have been on the phone - if not on the next flight - to straighten it out. Think of all those times you've read reviews in Stereophile or TAS where the designer personally shows up at the reviewer's house to set up the speakers?
If you go back to that Audio Asylum thread, you'll see that both Lars Erickson and James Croft emphasize that they will spend as much time as they need with each and every customer giving personal advice on room setup. So, if the reviewer chose not to take advantage of that service, he's not accurately representing what the prospective buyer can expect.
And yes, I bristle at a small manufacturer getting dumped on in this way, especially when other reviews have been so positive.
End of my rant. ;-)

Hey Rebbi, I'll take your cynicism and raise it one. The flip side of what they do for major advertisers as you say is what they did to the clue. Financially Sjofn means nothing to them, so they can afford to throw them under the bus with virtually no consequences and come out the other end unscathed with an additional piece of evidence to say "hey look, we put out negative reviews too." Both the reviewer and JA had an easy path to find out why their poor findings were as they were and possibly find their cause and address them, and neither lifted a finger to do anything. NOTHING. Beyond suspicious in my book for a publication that -- as Rebbi eludes to -- frequently bends over backwards to accommodate other manufacturers to apparently get at "the truth."

As I see it there are two choices here. Stereophile can man up and do a follow-up review utilizing the manufacturer to insure the speakers are being reviewed and measured properly, or they can just bury their heads in the sand and hope this ridiculous review somehow goes away. The second strategy may well work given the relatively little notoriety of Sjofn here in the US, albeit at the expense of John Q. Audiophile. But taking the higher ground and giving them an honest second shot would go a LONG way toward repairing their reputation at least in my book. The public -- even audiophiles -- have a great capacity to forgive if someone does the right thing in the end and admits their mistakes. As it stands, IMO Stereophile's credibility and reputation have taken a major hit here. I'm most disappointed with JA as I think he knows his stuff and works hard to produce a quality product. But this all happened under his watch and I find it greatly disappointing on every level in terms of an audio equipment review. Mostly I feel bad for Sjofn. Like most audio companies they put their sweat and blood into something they passionately believe in for relatively little monetary reward. To have that damaged because of incompetence or some other agenda is tragic and fowl. Sleep we'll S'pile.