If I had known doing this program would validate my subjective personal opinions and findings would instantly take away all doubt for those interested in audio I might even have gone through the trouble.
You seem to be the only one asking to do this (in a demanding way) so you can take what I, and now also industry insiders and reviewers as well, write more serious.
Well, the research shows trained listeners are better able to discriminate better between speakers than reviewers, and for untrained listeners in general for headphones. (There may be a study with reviewers evaluating headphones, but off the top of my head I do not recall one). Asking reviewers to see if they meet the qualifiaction of a trained listener, and if not then to train their ear, I think is reasonable. I am surprised Gary is the first to bring this up, I'll be the second to request this of reviewers. I'll tag
@Resolve since he expressed interest in this and what I talk about below may be relevant to him as well.
There also seems to be some confusion regarding what the statistics of trained vs untrained listener rating headphones mean. Passing the program does not mean your subjective impressions are valid and no doubt can be cast upon the - this is an incorrect interpretation of research.
The differences between trained and untrained listeners describe everyone studied, and may not accurately describe an individual. Some untrained listeners will be be equally consistent in blind subjective assessments of headphones or speakers, just on average a random untrained listener is worse than a random trained listener. You may already meet the criteria for being a trained listener, and even if you don't, your subjective opinions if blind tested in some study may still be consistent, similar to that of a trained listener.
Just because someone is a trained listener does not mean their subjective impressions will be reliable. There will always be bias - no subjective impressions will be 100% valid and reliable. The science shows subjective impressions are more reliable when a listener is trained. This does not imply that every subjective impression by a trained listener reliable and valid, just that on average they are more reliable than untrained listeners. Nor does this imply that an impression by an untrained listener is necessarily invalid.
Of course, this is not specific to you. If you do not meet the criteria of trained listener, it does not mean every personal opinion and subjective impression on your website would suddenly become invalid. The science does however show that subjective assessment is more reliable if you are a trained listener. Seeing as this is a science oriented forum, and subjective assessments are a necessary part of reviews, I think it is good to ask reviewers to check if they meet the criteria for being a trained listener, and if they do not, it is good to ask them to train their ear as research participants have done.