Could headphones be used to evaluate speakers?

If a speaker manufacturer made recordings of music played on their various speaker models and the recordings were made using identical acoustically designed recording rooms with consistent recording equipment, could those recordings be used to give a prospective buyer a way to evaluate different speakers by using high fidelity headphones? Could this be a way to allow prospective buyers to get a good or very close evaluation of speakers?

I know there are many variables within a buyer's home that will effect a speaker's actual performance (audio equipment, room design/acoustics, etc) but couldn't this at least provide a buyer a way of narrowing down speakers to a final speaker he may want to further evaluate or purchase? It sure would be easier for a manufacturer to ship recordings and a pair of headphones than ship large floor standing speakers for evaluation.

If a standard recording setup were defined and consistently used, I could even see where a third party would provide the service of making the speaker recordings in their studio for different speaker manufacturers.