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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.

 

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zlone
657 posts
 

Just did. I bought some KEF Reference 1’s used, without hearing them. These were preceded by LS50’s, so I figured it was low risk. An excellent upgrade. 

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 

I bought once great speakers from few states away and then company went bankrupt.  Why? Because of poor dealership base.  They had only 3 places for whole US to demo them.  Still love them, but there is no support in case of any problems.  

reched
5 posts
 

I've had IMF Monitors and now the KEF 104 a/b so i do know the KEF signature sound, just can't pull the trigger. 

ghdprentice
6,967 posts
 

In general no. Descriptions of the sound of speakers is only really effective if done in relation to speakers you have heard and know. Otherwise each qualitative statement has little quantitative information. A comment like a bit bright and detailed could mean anything from something you might not hear it to ear shattering, chalk board scraping sound. It is difficult to talk about without common sign posts.

But after three decades of experience and owning a lower tier speaker from Sonus Faber to verify that they had exactly the sound I wanted, the next two upgrades with the same company and doubling or more my investment was very safe. The outcome was exactly what I expected.

grinnell
1,096 posts
 

i did that with 3 speakers

 

BW602s2

Triangle Comte

Ref 3A de Capos-had these for 14 years now

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