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Have you ever used a separate speaker selector unit to audition speakers? Would you?

I'm anticipating a big "bake-off" between speakers competing for my affection. I have a tube amp that requires shut down, short break, between speaker changes. So, I'm thinking of getting a speaker selector box to do this. I don't want to spend a mint, but if the speakers are multi-thousand, it seems that spending a little money to really compare them might be worth it.

I know that such interpositions of wires and hardware degrades the sound. But this would be done to all speakers being compared -- so it would remain a level playing field.

Of course, if it trashes them all, then no comparisons can really be done.

Any thoughts about auditioning speakers at home with a speaker selector box?
hilde45

Showing 1 response by cat_doorman

cat_doorman
237 posts
 
I would be more concerned about placement than switching. I recently tried my old speakers again after setting up new ones for the last several weeks to try out. The new ones ended up set a littler wider with less toe in but about the same distance from the wall so I thought maybe I could sneak the old ones just inside of them and it would be about the way they were. Either I was wearing rose colored earplugs when thinking back to how they old speakers sounded or the placement was more of an issue than waiting 5 minutes and crawling around on the floor to change the cables over. To position them correctly I would need to move the new speakers, but since this was just supposed to be a quick check to remind myself of some of the differences it wasn't worth the effort to me.

I think I'm cured of trying to setup 2 sets of speakers at a time to compare them. The potential damage to amps or switchbox noise is really secondary.  
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