Free in-home testing?

Also judging sound at shows is for the most part futile. For years, best of show and runner ups rarely have anything to do with the gear but the set up skills of the manufacturer. The really smart ones hire the best, guys like Jim Smith.

For example, every Tekton speaker I've heard at a show sounded so bad that I'm baffled at their popularity. The Schiit room is consistently painful. Etc. In this industry, great marketing coupled with some really creative online shilling rule the day.

@mlenow

Would love to attend a show if something is coming up in the Philly area or nearby

https://www.capitalaudiofest.com

A $ saving strategy is to buy used then resell if don’t like.  

Which reminds me, got to sign up for AXPONA.

Also judging sound at shows is for the
most part futile.

I somewhat disagree.  It’s true that it’s a hit and miss because of the room modes and possibly sub-par setups, but if you hear a sound you like seems the speaker should at least perform similarly at home provided that it’s supported by the audio chain and addressing room acoustics.  Magico and YG speakers usually sounded great to me but at the 2019 RMAF the Magicos only sounded meh.

@mlenow Focal 936

And I erred -- it was Martin Logan xti 60's that I got from Crutchfield.

@edlchiang Crutchfield charges 75 dollars to return SOME pairs of speakers. For large ones, like the Martin Logans, it was $10/speaker because it was going back with a different company because they were heavier.