Consumer Reports killed its loudspeaker reviews after research disproved their methods

Evidence

In the United States, Consumers Union, and their publication Consumer Reports, is such an organization, and for many years they published reviews of loudspeakers based on anechoic measurements elaborately processed in a scientific-sounding manner. Their ratings were greatly influential for the general public, but there were many scientific and technical people, the author included, who questioned their methods and told them so. As will be discussed in the following chapter, research done at Harman by Sean Olive proved them wrong, and they ceased reviewing loudspeakers. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1080

Categorization

• SEED: A case study of how measurement-driven ratings that sound rigorous can mislead — an angle for an essay on the gap between technical-sounding methods and valid ones.
• XREF: Ties to chapter 11’s Harman research; a cautionary story about seemingly scientific measurement practices.