SVS is an affiliate of Erin's Audio Corner, listed in the Shopping section at the bottom of every review.
SVS sends their speakers to Erin to review. Erin is not necessarily going to be nasty to them in words, but we can expect proper measurements. We can choose to buy a product endorsed (or not) by Erin through the affiliate links to support him: or we can choose to be wary of any reviewer earning money that way. That's up to us individually to decide, of course. The measurements are published, they are presumably accurate, so they have no need to send speakers to Amir as well.
We can even start a thread here on those measurements and rip them to pieces, if we want. The company is still taking that risk. Of course, if they don't send the product to ASR, nothing said here is endorsed and they and their resellers can just tell people not to use or believe ASR if they wish.
We also know that if a product is incompetently designed or engineered, it is likely to be called out here. Even if Amir recommends a product with measurements short of textbook, someone is going to take a potshot in the comments. Remember the TuneTot?
Whether Amir asks for a product or not is up to Amir. I daresay he's not going to do too many cold calls because multiple rejections can't be nice. I'd say that if you are buying the product and arrange for it to go to him first, that's OK, but just asking isn't, because we don't know how that will play into any official contact. Otherwise, sticking to having products reviewed that people own, or that manufacturers want to place here, is probably the best way forward in practice.
Any reviewer has to ask themselves how they want to do their job and earn their living (or not) from it. I'm not here to condemn Erin for the way he chooses to do things. I would suggest, though, that any commercial links anywhere are taken into account - there's no point in condemning one person for taking advertising or commissions, but not another unless you know where you draw the line.
The bar at ASR is high, and should stay that way. As far as taking it on yourself to ask a manufacturer for an ASR review, I'd at least check with
@amirm first, to avoid angst or problems with that manufacturer.
It is interesting, though that an SVS representative gave such a dodgy answer. This place is full of smart and sceptical people who will spot this stuff. They should just say that review samples are limited and sent out according to company policy, or something similar, and leave it at that. As it is, I'll be less likely to buy anything from them because I wonder what else they are not straight about...
