What to ask when buying used speakers?

Just an update here, I did end up purchasing a used pair of KEF Reference 1's from TMR. The feedback here was very helpful and allowed me to proceed with confidence. Granted it was pretty low risk as they were certified pre-owned and backed up by their guarantees. I have had them in place for four days now and they are a great upgrade from my LS50's. 

Having been a KEF listener for some time now, I was confident that I would like the sound. I have a list of speaker brands that I still want to hear and will be attending a show, likely AXPONA, in the spring to get an idea of other house sounds.

The deal and the time were right with these speakers, and I am very happy with the results. Thanks again for all the feedback!

Congrats, great choice. What gear will you be using it with?

@yyzsantabarbara The chain is a custom Pi/Allo streamer -> Schiit Gumby -> Benchmark LA4 -> Coda #8. I am now looking at upgrades for the streamer and the DAC is probably due. 

@zlone That is similar to what I use. I had the LA4 and #8. I now use the LA4 and #16. My DAC is the Schitt Yggi+ Less Is More. We have a very similar setup.

I have had 3 fibre based streamers in the house and all 3 are an easy recommendation:

• Lumin X1
• Sonore OpticalRendu
• Playback Designs Streamer-IF

I think the Yggi+ is the best sounding DAC I have had but the Lumin X1 is a great all-round choice for streamer, DAC, and maybe even preamp. The Leedh volume control is almost as good as the volume on the LA4. 

It may make sense to hit the used market for the following categories:

a)

"High End": Typically, a 60k speaker can be bought for 30k and so on...guys who buy such speakers tend to take care of them. When your done with it, you can sell it for about the same price and cut even. If you bought speakers "new" in this category, you are never cutting even when you sell it (that’s a big L each time and doesn’t make much monetary sense).

b)

Rare: There are speakers that are quite rare and coveted (could be high end or affordable). A few units of a model were made, got discontinued in a short period, etc. It may make sense to look for those in the used market.

For either a) or b), go with an established manufacturer... If something goes wrong, you can get replacement drivers, parts, etc from a manufacturer who’s been around. If you bought something from a self proclaimed "exotic manufacturer" dude working out of his garage, you may be out of luck.

Otherwise, what’s your budget? At any normal/affordable budgets for speakers that aren’t rare, you can find something ’new’ that will beat the daylights out of some guy’s used crap (as speaker tech and designs improve every few years).