Most recent speaker you audited in room and returned? Why did you return it?

I’ll jump on the Tekton bandwagon! I bought a pair of Lore Reference with a beryllium Satori tweeter ($500 each!) which I was familiar with because my DIY speakers use them. The Tektons were horrible! 

I have had more than a few pair sound good in the showroom, that left my house after a short stay. Most were not returned. They were sold to friends or on sites like this. Some sounded good in one or more of my systems, but I could not make them work in the room that I had purchased them for. These include Martin Logan Motion 60's and KEF R700's. Interestingly enough, the smaller Motion 40's sounded great in any room that I tried them. I have also had LS 50's sound good in all of my systems and keep a pair in the house. I currently am in the same situation with the Mofi Source Point 10's. They were fantastic in the showroom, but are too large physically for the room that I purchased them for. They wound up crammed into the corners. I can't use them in my other systems (WAF or same size problem}. I view this as my problem, not the dealer's.

In the past dealers have worked with me, but I never expected more than store credit. I never asked for a refund if the product was not defective.

Zu Dirty Weekends.  

Always wanted to try a small speaker like the Dali Menuet. Picked up a NIB Dali Menuet SE here in the States, probably the only only left. After what I thought was a reasonable amount of breakin period, I listened and compared to other speakers I had. While it was smooth, had weight and controlled sibilant passages really well, there were sounds in the music that were either so subdued or alltogether missing that I couldn’t accept. In my opinion, it was overly refined. They had great resolution but lacked a commensurate amount of detail. Ended up getting Dali Opticon 1s NIB at half price, also last ones seemingly left at least at discount, and they work much better for me. Not as resolving as the SE but still sufficiently resolving and with the detail I was used to hearing with every other speaker I had or had tried. And works in nearfield or further away in a small room. Vinyl wrapped vs nice wood veneer but works just the same at a much lower price. A lessoned learned.

Returned MA Silver 100 6th gen which was too much in your face and could muddle up the upper middle and high frequencies. Good control of sibilance but got congested at moderate SPLs and at lower volumes, had to constantly adjust volume to hear softer passages but then dynamic swings were just too much. Ended up with Martin Logan 15i and on a sub, gives you the best points of the MA without the issues. Easier to listen with both movies and music but still exciting.

Quad S2, very resolving and detailed, fun with movies but sounding dull with music. It had a a fairly neutral frequency curve after the mid bass hump but I think what made it un-engaging listen for me was the flat stage (totally lacked depth) that made it so. They didn’t disappear in the room and imaging wasn’t all that great, my budget Triangle Zetas were far more desirable with music. The Zetas were far more musical but can have some glare during a sibilant passage noticed mostly with movies. So if a speaker performs well in most areas, I can give up a bit of resolution. Another lessoned learned.

All considered budget speakers and even though I use good amplification, from a Keces E40 to a Hegel h160, doesn’t make sense getting a much more expensive speaker at the SPLs I typically listen too given I have neighbors and no longer want to listen really loud. Not enough to gain for the money, unless I can find something far less than retail.

Sent other speakers packing as well over the years.While better speakers can give more inner detail, texture in notes, finding that in a small speaker is harder to do and as long as tonality is good enough, it works. All three speakers I have are different but nice for me to listen to. Part of the experience i guess.

@agwca , nice post/great chunk of info.

For the past 10 years, I have been set up in a 1600 sq.ft basement, which i finished to get 2 large listening rooms, storage space, etc (got banished from floors above by the sorceress upstairs). Small speakers have always sounded lost in my space and are not my thing. For the type of music I listen to at my spl levels, they all cry and demand to be sent back to their daddy. Most reviewers (advertisers) on YT review way too many small speakers (easy to get them in and out, I suppose!)...and I’d be shocked if those tiny flacid speaker wielding cowboys said anything other than, "it was the best thing eva!". Lol

Cool that you’ve got a Keces amp.. I have been using some of their power conditioning solutions for a bit. It’s not a name you hear around here much.

Kef LS50 Meta

Their "improvement" was in their tweeter.  I'm acoustically impaired above 2k.

Pretty little things though...