I live in a state that is more or less an audio store desert unless you count Best Buy. I’m in the similar situation you find yourself in, in that, how do I go about buying or demo’ing speakers for my system. This means I’m trying out the limited line of speakers offered by larger on-line retailers like Crutchfield or Audio Advice. Both of which I’ve purchased recent component upgrades from and been very happy with. I’ve also found a few direct-to-consumer speaker companies that I may demo for my system. My short list of options is based on my listening criteria of moderate listening volume in a largish room. Limited to stand mount speakers due to Wife Acceptance Factor.
Narrowing down to the following:
Aperion Verus V8B
Martin Logan Motion XT B100
MoFi Source Point 8
Sonus Faber Sonetto II
KEF R3 Meta
JBL L82
When I"m able to build my listening room / library in a few years I'm getting the Vandersteen 2CE Sig 3 floor standers.