Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?

I luv my vmps 40 and the towers I have they were are a good bang for the buck.you have to like ribbons. We're I am the are no stores so I have to gamble.i. have never sent anything back to crutchfield. And some other places that he  60 day return.upscale audio ect.but mostly buy used including cars with low miles at a great discount.enjoy the music stay healthy

My most recent speaker purchase I didn’t listen to first but since all the reviews were extremely positive I pulled the trigger.
Dynaudio Heritage Special’s with the Dynaudio Stand 20. Phenomenal speakers every bit as good as all the reviews, maybe even better. 

I started buying speakers (all kinds and sizes) in the early '80s. Probably a dozen to a dozen and a half pairs since then, all but one or two used. I'm pretty sure I heard only one of those speakers very briefly before buying (in a noisy showroom). So of course that purchase was a disaster. The speakers sucked and I quickly dumped them. Easily the largest and heaviest speakers I ever owned were the Vandersteen 4s. I bought them used from 3,300 miles away based on various reviews of different Vandersteen models (all positive reviews). The 4s had to be shipped to my house on a semi-trailer. It was insane. They were an immediate success, and still live on in memory as the best speakers I ever heard.

Buying speakers "blind" is easier now w/the aid of the internet. I long ago figured out my sonic preferences, and since then have become rather good at decoding/translating the descriptives people use for speakers. For example, "accurate" and "transparent" often = bright (or at least, brighter than I want). And so on.

For me, price dictates my desire to actually hear a speaker, unless I am familiar with the "house" sound.  But I have found that no matter what, speakers don't sound the same in the store, of course, and as you go up in price, they become more sensitive to the electronics and cables and room treatment too.  So I bought Focal Diablo Utopia III's after listening, Joseph Audio Pulsars without any audition, since they only get rave reviews from everyone, and I like the Joseph Audio house sound, and bought my Wilson Sabrina X's by listening to the Sasha DAW's in the showroom.  If I want to upgrade from the Sabrina's, I will definitely go to Axpona or some other audio show to listen to a wide variety of the speakers that folks talk about on here.  One thing that I DON'T do is buy based on published reviews. As someone observed above, have you ever read a review that was not glowing?  It is also tough to buy based on comments in the forums, since everyone has a different set up and room, so one person can dislike the speaker in their setup and another might think that the speaker is the best thing since sliced bread.  So bottom line, its not the perfect solution, but an audio show is probably the best way to get exposed to many options in a given price range.

Bob @dorkwad  best answer here.

The safest way is to listen to them in your system at home.  Won't make a bad decision that way.  I've learned the hard and expensive way more than once.  I know that I'm a VMPS RM40 BCSE man.  I love the VMPS ribbons and have owned about 5 of them.  Listened to a couple before I bought but they were in an unfamiliar system.  Made poor choices both times.  One other I bought without hearing them based on good reviews--also turned out poorly.  My choice back in 2012 still beats out all challengers to my ears.

Bob