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How to meaningfully audition speakers??

I think this topic has appeared elsewhere, even if worded differently. But I thought I'd ask anyway.

Just upgraded my amp and was thinking about auditioning different speakers. Problem is that there are only a handful of high-end B&M stores nearby. Another complication is that no one store has the 2 or 3 speaker brands that I want to check out.

Further, I am dubious that one can meaningfully audition gear by running from store to store because the test conditions are not identical. In addition, unless a piece is really terrible or incredibly terrific, I don't trust my aural memory. Perhaps other have a different view.

Seems to me that the best way to accomplish what I want is to have the speakers of interest brought to my house and hooked up to my rig. But -- I am NOT aware of any dealer willing to part with expensive gear like that, especially if it has to be specially ordered from a distributor because the model is not on display.

So the Q is what do most folks do? Just buy speakers on hope and a prayer?? Rely on reviews or Forum comments??
bifwynne
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,318 posts
 
Find your reference sound by auditioning various good systems at dealers, shows, friends, whatever. Once you know your reference sound when you hear it, then you are in a position to try to replicate it. Can't achieve a goal until you know what it is.
stl114_nj
94 posts
 
It gets tougher as one moves up the scale. Early in the process I made a large jump from B&W cm7 to the 802D which represented a nice improvement and was easy to hear. Now I couldn't audition at my home without hauling some big heavy speakers around. Something to be said for monitors.....
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,891 posts
 
I've bought speakers online after reading as much as I could about them and after auditioing at length with music I'm familiar with and there's really no comparison. You have to personally audition them.

Having said that, if there's a speaker you don't have access to and you really would like to hear it or something from their line, talk to the company and see if there is anyone near you who've bought a pair and maybe they can hook you up with a listen. I've done it once and it was a very nice experience and I ended up buying a pair online afterwards.

Good luck in your search.

All the best,
Nonoise
wolf_garcia
6,711 posts
 
You still have to settle in with them, and that could take a while...luckily there's so much info out there you can easily educate yourself about a lot of stuff, but you never know until you hook it all up at home (even if you live in the parallel universe of accessable hifi stores inhabited by Elizabeth). If you can exactly replicate your listening room in a large RV you can drive it all over and get stores to let you take things to the parking lot and hook 'em up (an extreme solution, but hey...). Anything I'm remotely interestd in I read all about and usually am happy with the results even if I can't audition something, although there have been a few unpleasant surprises.
david12
1,454 posts
 
I agree it is a problem, but really for all other kit too, amps, CD players phono cartridges. Some excellent advice given already. The most important is to have CDs and LPs you know for a sound quality check. You have to know how they sound in your system first. Secondly, if you are going to a dealer, ask for kit as similar to yours in quality, as they can provide. There is no point auditioning with $100,000 monopblocks, if you use $5000 integrated.

Shows are a good place to start, because show conditions are so bad. If a speaker sounds good in show conditions, it must have smothing going for it.

You will find dealers who are prepared to loan speakers, especially if you are an old, trusted customer. Even then, new kit needs time to settle in and a weekend loan is too short.
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