Answering the last bit, yes, it is a lot more work including physical aspects of handling speakers. My current thought is to mostly limit the testing to small to medium with some exceptions here and there. In the larger scope, I am more worried about the cost of the instrumentation than the rest. I can go on a better diet and learn to lift 100 pound speakers.
Can't wish for $70K to fall on my lap.
The measurements will be very different than stereophile and much more understandable. The system will measure a complete sphere around the speaker, not a few degrees left and right. This allows to one plot a curve like this:
View attachment 28327
A weighted sum of the three lines above allow one to predict listener preference to high degree. It takes 70 measurements for Harman to produce the above graph in an anechoic chamber. This method of correlation is based on measurements of countless speakers and hundreds of listeners across many trials.
In contrast, the stereophile measurements are rather crude:
Notice how their measurements stops at 300 Hz on the low side.
There is also the question of the future of stereophile measurements. I am not confident that JA will continue in this role to make measurements, speakers or otherwise.
On availability of speakers to test, that is an open question to membership. I can source fair number myself without purchasing. There are also a ton of budget speakers/monitors which would be good to review from Elac to Yamaha. I think if we just profiled every small speaker, we would be in a far better place than we are now.
We also have a number of manufacturers that sell on measured performance such as 8C, Kii, Dutch & Dutch, Genelec, etc. who over time may be willing to send samples in for testing. Indeed some may not have access to such measurement system and see it as a value to them just to have the data, much like some companies do with respect to Audio Precision APx555 which I have now for electronics.
But yes, this is a complicated thing and hence the reason I am asking for feedback.