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.

 

 

128x128labguy

My personal opinion. I’m not a strong believer in speaker/amp pairings. Probably becomes more important when you have six figure systems.To me, I’m more concerned with current delivery and impedance matching.

Take a trip to a place that has the speakers you want to listen to. Yes, it will cost some money that you'd prefer to put towards the speakers but it's worth it in the end if you end up with the right speakers after only one try. 

Looking at the photo of your room, I’d make acoustical treatments a high priority.

 

And, good reading material.

Wanted to see @labguy's system to understand the discussion, but the link sends me elsewhere. Just a bad link, or do I need some higher level of membership? I have certainly viewed many other systems in the past (e.g., who could forget MC's cable risers)?