Keep in mind the Germs lost a substantial amount of points because of lack of hardware included with the set that was sent with them for the review. Also: image stability- the Germ xover has MANY combinations to select from on the passive xover to integrate tweeter and mid xover points for the best results in a particular installation or speaker arrangement...could it possibly mean the ones chosen by the reviewer were not optimal to properly evaluate such things as image stability,tonal balance, etc? Afterall...we are speaking of the most crucial part of speaker integration and phase response: the xover point in the critical midrange.
Not so much defending the Germs, but bringing out the obvious.
Like all reviews...it doesnt matter if its in a magazine....most aspects are subjective and must be taken with a grain of salt.