Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?

There are certain drivers I buy (or will) w/out audition...

If the specs appeal for what I'm after, no problem. *S*

After I've taken a few tools to them....surgical scissors, and very sharp knives....

....re-coned, re-surrounded, some practical magic....

A new life, a new 'voice'.....*VBS*

Four times with positive results (Galante Silverdales, Merlin TSM-MME, Perlisten S7t SE, Klipsch Cornwall IV), two with negative (PBN Montana, Spatial X3). The positives are still with me; the negatives did not last. I feel the only way to know a speaker is to have it your room, and for long enough to get the best out of it through positioning, amp selection, cabling, and that means owning. So I often just take the plunge after careful research and consideration, even if I have not been able to audition. Returns policies help.

I mostly do not listen to speakers or even components before purchase.  I rely mostly on research and gut instinct.  For example, I've only bought 4 sets of speakers for my main system and of those, 3 pairs I had never listened to.  I patiently wait for awesome deals and am prepared to buy without listening.

I don't think anyone here would question these speaker non-auditions:  Fourier 1, NHT 3.3, and MBL 101E.  For example, the later was offered for less than $20K at an estate sale where you could only visually inspect, but no opportunity to listen.

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 !  

One thing that ought to be mentioned is to be careful the burn-in status of speakers if you get a chance to audition before buying. I recently purchased a pair of KEF LS50 Meta loudspeakers, which people say needs at least 100 hours of burn-in. I ran them 24 hours a day for a week straight and the sound barely improved. It took more like 500 hours of burn-in and now they sound absolutely night and day compared to new or even with 100 hours burn-in. Auditioning speakers that still smell like the packing container won’t give you a proper impression of what you’re getting!

-Ed