Would you buy a pair of speakers by just looking at the measured freq. response?

OP yes…there is a German company that makes a laser scanner of the cone or diaphragm in motion in comparison to the input signal…. You might be surprised how poorly some materials do at reproducing the input…..

@tomic601 

Ot would be really interesting to hear if the comparison has a direct positive correlation with perceived sound quality. Microphone flat frequency certainly does not. 

@ghdprentice this issue is other confounding variables. The scanner is measuring cone breakup modes … sometimes the ( in the example i am most familiar with a very popular and expensive paper 5” mid is often out of phase with the input…. So add in a mid cabinet, inert or not, a large or small baffle and even a simole filter network and correlation…might prove elusive….

My prefered designer is a measure and listen guy….. ( since 1977 )

@tomic601 

That makes sense.

There is no replacement for how the speaker sounds in your room.   While so many things can be meassured, you would have to know how it applies to your unique conditions and taste, and even then there is so many variables. 

With bigger speakers it can be quite challenging to get the possibility to sample them in your own room, though!  :-) 

That actually inspired the dream speaker review series on my channel, Stjernholm Reviews, where the Silverback Listening team and I sample dream speakers in individual listening sessions to try to deliver some sound perspective from different listener profiles.