I've brought so many passive speakers home to find they sound nothing like the demo, usually once home the bass is mia! Use Best Buy to listen to some speakers in your room and system just to get a feel for what to expect. Some speakers need insane power, My blades sounded great cranked up with a 300wpc amp driving them, but were kinda dull and lifeless at low volumes until I threw a couple 600 wpc monoblocks on them. You have to educate yourself, decide on what component your building around and commit. Shopping at resale prices helps minimise damage.
How does one pick in this situation?
Not really any brick and mortar stores for audio in my area besides Best Buy. They don't carry much in the way of speakers and their audition room leaves a lot to be desired. The one or two others within driving distance have a few kef at one, and wharfdale at the other. Looking used, I found a local pair of Salk veracity HT2, and a Nola contender 3. So my choices seem pretty limited for a system. How do you choose a speaker if there isn't any place to hear a large variety, and what you can hear is all in different places on different equipment? I feel like m doomed to just keep repeating my failing attempts of trial and error.. help.