While it's not the only factor, frequency response is indeed one of the main considerations in my speaker procurement. Ideally, the speakers you're interested in should have a home audition period of at least 30 days with a favorable return policy. I followed this approach for my main system in the living room. I went through two rejections before finally settling on the third set, which is my current speaker. The entire procurement process took me a literal six months to complete.
Acquiring my second set of speakers for the master bedroom proved to be a lengthier process. I was particularly interested in the Burchardt S400 mkii, which is sold by a direct sales company. Although they offered a 45-day in-home auditioning policy, there was a cost of approximately 100 euros for return shipping. Despite this, encouraged by positive reviews from trusted reviewers and user feedback, I decided to give it a try. During that time period, I invested significant time and effort, more than with the first set, in making room acoustic adjustments, SPL measurements, and repositioning to fine-tune the speaker performance. After the speaker are fully broken in and a month's daily listening, I made up my mind to keep them. It's been almost a year now, and I haven't regretted my decision since. This is how much time and effort I took to acquire speakers. Is it my dream end-game speaker? Well, no, but it's certainly the speaker that brings me joy in music listening within my current budget or the investment I'm willing to make at this moment.
I believe it's crucial to audition the speakers in your own space. Before making a purchase, it's essential to conduct thorough due diligence by shop auditions and studying reviews and user feedback to narrow down the final list. Frequency response is a key consideration for my screening process but I would never, and I believe no one should, make a purchase solely based on that factor without conducting a home audition because the actual response performance is always room dependent.
