... by somebody else's ears, in somebody else's room, with or without somebody else's room EQ, using somebody else's music, through somebody else's musically taste, subjected to somebody else's priorities on the various audio quality attributes, under somebody else's mood at the time ...
I never put all my eggs in one basket. I read and watch everything I can find about the speakers I’m interested in, and make notes about trends, similarities, and nonsimilarities. If someone makes comparisons to other speakers I’m well aware of, and if the person seems to have a similar taste as me judged what he thinks of those speakers I know of.
If a friend of you (who you are well aware of his taste) say to you that a speaker have a bright sound, don’t you ever trust his judgement unless you hear it for yourself?
If 20 different person mention the exact same thing, don't you think it's a good chance that speaker truly have a bright sound?
The main characteristics of a speaker don't change in an extreme way from one room to another, it’s still the direct sound that is the main thing we hear, except for the lower frequencies.