@labguy: not sure how helpful you'll find this. However, FWIW, I sympathize completely with the dearth of high-end and/or good quality stereo shops in some areas of the planet. Regardless, I've always felt that driving a couple hundred miles or quick weekend flights to get to & from good quality stereo shops is perfectly acceptable in order to make informed decisions regarding stereo toys, especially expensive ones, and most especially for expensive speakers. Take a spouse, a friend! Make a fun long weekend vacation out of the excursion(s)! Of course, one should always carefully communicate with the targeted shops beforehand in order to orchestrate as fair a demo or audition as possible (e.g. dimensions & acoustic characteristics of your home sound room; placement limitations; components; what you're looking for; specifying which components you want the shop(s) to use in order to approximate, as closely as possible, what you have; bring music you are thoroughly familiar with; etc.). Explain what you are doing and make no bones about the fact that you don't want them wasting your time! Admittedly, there is no substitute for gauging what various components will truly sound like in your own home, most especially speakers. However, with a modicum of audiophile know-how, you can come pretty close.
As for the remark "some of my music that I listen to is poorly recorded", all I can say is that I've experienced this dilemma, as well, frequently after upgrading various components. As a result, I've slowly started to replace those recordings, when possible, with better produced, better engineered and better recorded copies.
Good Luck!