Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!

@erik_squires     Yes.  There's plenty of self delusion here.

Professional reviewers are paid peanuts.  Therefore even after buying their equipment at deep discount, they still have no money to buy nice apartments or even big rooms.  They collect old equipment and free review media, so their tiny rooms will always be cluttered and way below optimum.  They claim their golden ears are saving them, but perhaps they just have a good turn of phrase?

Best to listen for ourselves, in our own rooms, when we can make the chance.

@prof +1000

Some audiophiles are wannabe reviewers and some still are simply envious of the fact that reviewers get to play with all that gear while they can’t. Audio reviewer bashing has become sport for some, often with an unwarranted level of cynicism directed. Some of the bashing is surely warranted, but much of it is not and, as has been stated, reviews are simply a good starting point to making a good buying decision.

I would not want to review equipment.  It would take the enjoyment of the music away for me.  I would not be able to separate the work side from the relaxing pleasure side.  Listening would become work all the time for me.  I grew up in the 1960s watching TV.  So for me any class or seminar I had to watch on a TV screen felt like entertainment for me.  If the speaker is in front of me in person it feels like work, but if they are on a TV screen it feels like entertainment.  

It was the same years ago when playing golf with the customer.  I could not relax and enjoy the game.  I felt I had to be attentive and aware of everything and anything I said and did.

When I get into the stereo upgrade mode it is all about listening and discerning differences.  The pleasure of just hearing the music becomes secondary.  Fortunately, once I am satisfied with the sound I can get out of upgrade mode and go back to enjoying the music.  I’m the last person that could sit there and take notes while listening to music.

Bingo!  Agree completely.  Related to that, it is the reviewer who is able to write about the way that the gear impacts the music in the sound that are best. 

@prof maybe my irony didn't come off so well. The OP was making the point that someone whose listening room is a mess or absolute disaster clearly can't be relied upon to subjectively review equipment or music, so I was making the contrarian point that someone whose listening room looks like like nearly all the "audiophile" rooms I see clearly can't be relied upon either because their listening setup and equipment doesn't reflect real-world conditions. 

As you rightly point out, people create the room they want. Some "test" equipment by listening to "audiophile" tracks and some people listen to music on the best setup they can afford.  

I'm sure if some people saw my listening room they'd be aghast.. And while it's not Michael Fremer-boarding-on-horder messy, it's also not the audiophile ideal.