@bifwynne My first pair of speakers are what I purchased sight unseen and unheard! after intense googling and reviewing and (reading at that time)!. Paradigm studio 40v3s used on the cheap, all 5 of them a decade ago. Over the last decade I did keep going to Magnolia and other dealers local and hear things once in a while after reading reviews.
Finally I took a vacation for myself and went to RMAF 2018 and listened to many speakers. Many of them were kind enough to oblige my request for a song or two many times in the same day!, lol.
But yes it is a difficult process. You need to bucket speakers into different category. Some people say metal tweeters love them , hate them etc. Some swear by soft dome tweeters, there are ribbons and recently I came across plasma tweeters, yeah!. This will help narrow your search.
Speakers can also be bucketed by what the original designers want them to be like neutral or not yet etc. Full range or not.
I realized I prefer a neutral speaker that is easy to drive, can reproduce a good sound stage and has good imaging when the source permits. Should sound good in low volumes etc.
At the least just use a SPL meter on your phone for the music you want to audition with speakers, level match it and ask if they are using room correction or not. Also by now you know the music you like and how you want it to be presented by a good speaker.
Don't read too much into reviews of speakers online. I always tend to like things made by good engineers who try to apply good science or at-least strive to. Sometimes they can be really wrong and sometimes it might work just for you.
Finally I took a vacation for myself and went to RMAF 2018 and listened to many speakers. Many of them were kind enough to oblige my request for a song or two many times in the same day!, lol.
But yes it is a difficult process. You need to bucket speakers into different category. Some people say metal tweeters love them , hate them etc. Some swear by soft dome tweeters, there are ribbons and recently I came across plasma tweeters, yeah!. This will help narrow your search.
Speakers can also be bucketed by what the original designers want them to be like neutral or not yet etc. Full range or not.
I realized I prefer a neutral speaker that is easy to drive, can reproduce a good sound stage and has good imaging when the source permits. Should sound good in low volumes etc.
At the least just use a SPL meter on your phone for the music you want to audition with speakers, level match it and ask if they are using room correction or not. Also by now you know the music you like and how you want it to be presented by a good speaker.
Don't read too much into reviews of speakers online. I always tend to like things made by good engineers who try to apply good science or at-least strive to. Sometimes they can be really wrong and sometimes it might work just for you.