Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!

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.

The number one thing that I want to know about reviewers, particularly when they are past 70, is their hearing test.  Most of us in the hobby are around that age and we all have some frequency loss somewhere.  It just doesn't make sense to hear Reichert or Valin or Fremer go on about how they went to the original Same Goodys and then accord them Golden Ear Status.  However if I know that their deficits are similar to mine then I can put their reviews in a meaningful context

I recall posting a reference to a thread about "simple tweaks" to our systems and mentioned one of the easiest tweaks for people who normally wear glasses was to simply remove them !   Apparently the idea is still met with derision judging by this post in the current thread about reviewer's listening rooms.

" remember that one over the top review when jonathan skull announced to the world he removed his eyeglasses when listening and voila, everything sounded better and different!!! 🤣😂"

Noting that the reflective qualities of Michael Fremer's record collection could be responsible for his listening environment, I don't see that a pair of glasses being regarded as a reflective surface only inches from our receptors [ears] wouldn't make a meaningful difference as well.   I wonder if the engineers who designed the famous Neumann KU-100 microphone in the shape of a human head ever considered a special model wearing eyeglasses ?

Try it even if you don't regularly wear eyeglasses and if you don't hear a difference may I suggest a visit to a hearing specialist ?  It definitely makes a difference !

I'd rather hear from a reviewer who might have a 'real world' listening space like most viewers would. A review from an acoustically perfect space would give me no information at all about what I might expect in my own place. 

@terraplane8bob

I recall posting a reference to a thread about "simple tweaks" to our systems and mentioned one of the easiest tweaks for people who normally wear glasses was to simply remove them ! Apparently the idea is still met with derision judging by this post in the current thread about reviewer’s listening rooms.

You just can’t take anything a reviewer says seriously.

We have no idea whether their hearing isn’t damaged or irregular in some way.

We don’t know the acoustics of their rooms.

We also have no idea whether they know anything about the way the human hearing system works. Or whether they even care.

A fair bit of sound, particularly at volume is heard via bone conduction slightly before our brains can register it.

Removing a pair of glasses is bound to affect the way sound is perceived by the listener and not least because of the lack of reflections.

Since vision competes with hearing for attention at all times music will always tend to sound clearer in a darkened room/ late at night or with ones eyes shut.

I usually notice a slight increase in the precise placement of voices and instruments immediately when I close my eyes.

Give your brain less to do and it will usually do it better.