About 6 years ago, I purchased a pair of lower priced floor-stander speakers (~$2K/pair) without an audition but based on a glowing review by a reviewer and his audiophile friends. He supposedly kept the review pair and said his friends were going out to buy a pair themselves. Well... While they were pretty efficient, there was a definite dip in the upper mid-range that unfortunately rendered them not good enough to keep despite their price. I had passed the trial return date, so I sold them for a little more than 1/2 of what I paid for them. Try to audition the speakers you're interested in if possible, even if you can't play them in your system. You should be able to get a good impression as to how they perform before taking the plunge. Sight unseen and especially unheard can be very disappointing !
Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?
In the 'good old days' there were a lot of hifi stores around so there was plenty of opportunity to go in and listen to various brands and models of speakers. With the continuing disappearance of audio shops, I'm wondering if more people are making the leap to buy speakers they've never heard in person, or just limiting their purchase options to the brands they can hear locally? If you are buying a speaker that you haven't heard, how do you get comfortable with that? Magazine reviews? YouTube demos?
I've mostly heard any speaker I ended up buying, but in two cases I bought speakers that weren't available in my area. I made my decision based on reviews. In one case the speaker was really nice, but in the second case, the speaker was well-reviewed but ended up being disappointing.
Appreciate your thoughts.