Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?

Four times with positive results (Galante Silverdales, Merlin TSM-MME, Perlisten S7t SE, Klipsch Cornwall IV), two with negative (PBN Montana, Spatial X3). The positives are still with me; the negatives did not last. I feel the only way to know a speaker is to have it your room, and for long enough to get the best out of it through positioning, amp selection, cabling, and that means owning. So I often just take the plunge after careful research and consideration, even if I have not been able to audition. Returns policies help.

I mostly do not listen to speakers or even components before purchase.  I rely mostly on research and gut instinct.  For example, I've only bought 4 sets of speakers for my main system and of those, 3 pairs I had never listened to.  I patiently wait for awesome deals and am prepared to buy without listening.

I don't think anyone here would question these speaker non-auditions:  Fourier 1, NHT 3.3, and MBL 101E.  For example, the later was offered for less than $20K at an estate sale where you could only visually inspect, but no opportunity to listen.

About 6 years ago, I purchased a pair of lower priced floor-stander speakers (~$2K/pair) without an audition but based on a glowing review by a reviewer and his audiophile friends.  He supposedly kept the review pair and said his friends were going out to buy a pair themselves.  Well...  While they were pretty efficient, there was a definite dip in the upper mid-range that unfortunately rendered them not good enough to keep despite their price.  I had passed the trial return date, so I sold them for a little more than 1/2 of what I paid for them. Try to audition the speakers you're interested in if possible, even if you can't play them in your system.  You should be able to get a good impression as to how they perform before taking the plunge.  Sight unseen and especially unheard can be very disappointing !  

One thing that ought to be mentioned is to be careful the burn-in status of speakers if you get a chance to audition before buying. I recently purchased a pair of KEF LS50 Meta loudspeakers, which people say needs at least 100 hours of burn-in. I ran them 24 hours a day for a week straight and the sound barely improved. It took more like 500 hours of burn-in and now they sound absolutely night and day compared to new or even with 100 hours burn-in. Auditioning speakers that still smell like the packing container won’t give you a proper impression of what you’re getting!

-Ed

Purchased my first pair of speakers, AR 2ax back in 1967. Living in rural Minnesota  my purchase from Defa Electroinics in New York arrived va the rail road.  

Now I’m 72 and I again purchased a pair of speakers without an audition., Monitor Audio Platinum 200 3g.  Both were truly satisfying musically.  No complaints whatso ever….