What started you on your review journey? really interested in this…
A • To help out the community
B • Reviewing’s a hobby
C • Trying to start/make a living out of it
D • Get free stuff
E • Love being a part of a loaner group
Might make this a wiki if folk are sensible 
I’m not much of a reviewer, but I do mine just to try and help people make more informed decisions regarding gear and/or highlight things that may slip under the radar. That said, I think I’m a terrible reviewer as I am fairly easy to please and don’t have the most discerning ears so I mostly leave it up to everyone else nowadays.
All perspectives regarding a product helps people make a more informed decision in the end, but as always it will be up to the ears of the individual to decide for themselves.
I enjoy helping others along their audiophile journey when I can, but I am not the best at reviewing gear either. I have above average hearing for my age, and I am able to decern between various combinations of gear, cables, and headphones. That said my ability to articulate that in a written format is not as concise as others. I still enjoy it non the less. 
That’s me but then I just get lost in the 
I’m glad you guy’s have the tenacity to reach outside of that and put it in to written words or video content 
Trust me, I get just as lost as you, but I try to find the time in between those long listening sessions to post my thoughts. It also helps that my setup is on my desk, so I can post short answers while I listen as well. Which is what I am doing right now. 
Edit: Granted that my new ZMF Atrium Open is making it harder to pull myself away from the music lately. 
A, B, C, E.
I have a long story associated with me. I used to run a buisness here in my country maybe 5-7 years back. But after covid first wave, and due to sudden lockdowns i had to shut it down and took huge losses in my ventures. Started from 0 again, but i always had a thing for gadgets since my childhoood days. so thought why not start something related to that only.
So I found myself exploring the fascinating world of HiFi Audio. I never ran behind free samples, always happily worked with loaners from friends because for me community building, experience has always been a first priority. Can’t lie here but money has also been a priority since the past year or something due to bank going 0 after spending money every month haha. Just surviving somehow hoping my YouTube will boom one day and I will have enough to survive and experience more.
For the past 5 years, I have given all my time to build the community here in my country, and with god’s grace a few people now know me here and there and that’s it so far. I hope things get better for my country and we get access to bigger and more brands. I have a dream, once my YouTube hits up and i get enough money, I will open something like Zepplin in my country to help fellow audiophiles and my own self as well lol.
Here’s a video of an event i did last month in my city.
Meet the Audiophiles of Delhi: We Organized an Audio Meetup!! (youtube.com)
(Not shamelessly pushing my content, please watch if you guys would like to enjoy. A HiFi audio retailer in my country also shared my story on their website, let me share their link below as well.)
Selling Duppatas to Hi-Res Audio: A Journey of Gadget Generations (theaudiostore.in)
Can we have point F. Learn and share with the community through interactions?
I won’t call myself as a full time reviewer, I have written a few reviews when I’ve gotten time just to express how I listen to the gear and what I listen, I love to take feedback from others in terms of what difference of opinion they may have regarding what I’ve mentioned and also check for how the sources in the chain is impacting it, initially it was difficult to read graphs, understanding techs, filters, nozzle, tips etc. I know it’s funny but that’s what I’ve experienced and learned over a period of time that I’m selective in choosing the tips as well and that a single pair of tips cannot be used on all my iems, so pairing as per their sound.
TLDR - it’s a give and take relationship for me with the community, irrespective of the forums I’m part of
For sure as I said I can make it a wiki…happy for folk to add what they want as long as it doesn’t get silly
That’d be lovely and a never ending pool of resources
OK it’s now a wiki so it’s down to our community to not f*ck it up 
I do love being part of a loaner group, but there’s no requirements to write reviews as a part of it. When I do, rarely enough, it’s to provide an impression or a comparison for people. I’m more likely to put the work in if it’s a set that has little coverage, or I feel like has pretty biased/doctored coverage and needs an honest take.
So I guess option A.
A+B=M I do sound impressions for personal pleasure and for metalheads.
spread disinformation!
seed chaos!
cause arguments resulting in bans!
/end sarcastic humor… 
You opened a door that is not so easily closed again! 
I shut the wiki as folk really didn’t get it and were adding their comments anyway…great to see the reasons tho
It’s a big A and a very small B & E for me.
I’ve always had an interest in music since childhood and would buy a few pieces of gear here and there by saving up the money my parents gave me (nothing over $50). As the years went by and I started earning for myself, I got into car audio, tinkering around and learning from forums and YouTube about various topics like building sub enclosures, tuning, and sound treatment. Three years ago, I discovered the world of personal audio and have been hooked ever since.
I’ve had the chance to interact with many people who share my passion for music and, most importantly, I’ve met a few who I now confidently call friends. When I first started in personal audio, several kind souls helped me navigate better and make better choices in terms of gear. They shared their knowledge and experience selflessly, without looking down on me or judging my earlier gear choices. They were even kind enough to trust me with their gear countless times (and still do), which has greatly helped me understand personal audio better.
Now, to the point of this thread: why I’ve decided to review gear. At a certain point, I realized there are others like me who have little knowledge and direction, just as I did when I started this hobby. I felt that many reviews were based on numbers and graphs, but seldom on how the reviewer actually felt when they heard a piece of equipment. I wanted to share my experiences and opinions in simple words so that anyone reading my reviews could get an idea of how the gear might sound if they decided to spend their hard-earned money.
This hobby is highly subjective. There’s always going to be a situation where someone hears a piece of equipment differently from me, but I wanted to share my thoughts nonetheless.
I work full-time as a manager, which takes up a lot of my day, but my love for this hobby is so strong that I spend a couple of hours after work and on weekends interacting with folks on threads and working on reviews—all while keeping my wife happy (which is more important if I want to continue enjoying this hobby 
).
I worked in the Audio Industry for 25+ years as a car audio installer, as a audio consultant for a speaker manufacturer, as a salesman working in a very high end boutique stereo store and as regional manager for a nationwide stereo chain.
I only started doing reviews after getting upset on HeadFi seeing the countless shills pump gear.
My best friend and father passed away about a year and a half ago and I needed a way to release my hurt and anger at his passing. But what really triggered me was a comment from DSNUTS after my criticism.
He said “Your dont even do reviews - If you think you can do better lets see it”
So here we are same paid shills on HeadFi, same Penon cable talk, only I am happy to bring a more honest acount of what I hear.
My goals were to bring awareness to the hobby about what I hear, giving a fair account of my observations to help others spend thier hard earned $$ to good use and or avoid some dogs that may have also got hit by the hype train.
Have I also been guilty of hype - ABSOULTLY but not motivated by getting gear or association , but soley because In my heart 
I feel its worthy.
I also went a few rounds with my reviews bieng sku’d by pressure and bias and its not too hard a line to cross. Sometimes it takes a look inside to re-find your core values and center yourself.
I know my kids look to my past and are proud of thier father that raised them, instilled the same core values of respect, kindness and love and that is evendent in thier success and how they have grown to be wonderful loving people. Every day I try to be the man my dog Kilo thinks I am!
Now as my channel has grown and I have found some partners that dont ask for 4* + ratings (Penon)
Or companies like Hidizs who actually skript your reviews and change your written ones to suite thier narritive. Companies like Simgot, Kefine, EPZ, NF Audio, Letshouer and HiFiGo who sponsor my channel with samples and dont ask for anything beyond my honest impressions. They dont get upset with criticial review and use and actually ask for feedback to improve.
Its been a interesting journey with most people and peers bieng supportive and kind. There have been others driven by greed and jealousy with thier own agendas working behind your back. Those people are toxic and attract a toxic following.
And to those people I say THANKS!
This actually drives me to double down and continue and recently helped develop my new moto. “KEEPING IT REAL, KEEPING IT FUN”
I have made some great friends along the way and as I am not a reviewer who needs this as income , I do this to help the community, as a example, I am keeping my SQUIG so everyone can share and support the people who also support the community.
I really enjoy making content and can eventually see myself doing this full time to provide a passive income. I still wont set my YouTube video’s to run a add every 8 min thats a move (Optional) content creators do to get more income. For me I feel it spoils my content just for money grab not worth it.
Thanks for letting me share my story.
Enjoy the music TDM
FairPlay to you sir
Is a Penon W 
first class I wouldn’t let that 
get to you…but I guess in this case he did us all a favour by pissing you off, making you more determined to be you and not sucking up like all the other simps and sycophants in this hobby…I’m glad you still enjoy what you do 
A - Nah, I tried helping but newcomers always act like they know way more than they know. I stopped helping after a few tries.
B - Absolutely. Exploration is the basis of the human conscience and I love exploring.
C - Too little gain for too much work. Making a career of a hobby kills the hobby for me
D - The biggest luxury in Audio for me is having free time, and the speed of releases is too much. Having a collection means nothing.
E - Yes, but not for audio though. Too much subjectivity is there. I prefer joking with them on off topics. Being an introvert this helped me a lot to connect with people.
F ( @ILuvAudio ) - Absolutely yes. Learning new things every day matters to me a lot.
M (@SoundEater ) - Hell no, reviewing to me is a very serious thing and I have to listen to the tracks I listened to more than 1000 times (Not really), to extract the minuest observations. For relaxation my HD600 is more than enough for my whole life.
A for me first and foremost, although I don’t review often and consider it a fans listening impressions that might help someone. I was entertaining “C” but there are so many good reviewers that would do it better than me, I feel like I’d let the more seasoned experts handle that one.