Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?

It depends. Even if you audition a loudspeaker you can not be sure of what you will get at home in your room. If you have a dealer that will let you audition at home that is a huge plus but rare now a days. I usually by based an design and reputation. But my interest in loudspeakers is limited to dipole line arrays, principally ESLs. My choices are limited. If you know what format you want, tower vs bookshelf, efficiency you need to get the volume you want,  know your amp will drive them correctly and have a set price you can go by reputation. An example would be you want a highly efficient loudspeaker as you have a 60 watt/ch tube and you like rock at realistic levels and size is not an issue. The Klipsch Heritage series very well made and supported. The Cornwall is the speaker for you. I like 8 foot tall dipole ESLs. I have only one choice Soundlabs and I got exactly what I wanted without hearing them in person first. 

I'm up against that right now. I want to hear the KEF r 7 Meta but no dealer within reasonable distance. The r7 non Meta are available and at a good discount but if I buy them it will always bother me if I missed something not hearing the Meta ized version. One way or another this will be my last speaker as I am 73.

Just did. I bought some KEF Reference 1’s used, without hearing them. These were preceded by LS50’s, so I figured it was low risk. An excellent upgrade. 

I bought once great speakers from few states away and then company went bankrupt.  Why? Because of poor dealership base.  They had only 3 places for whole US to demo them.  Still love them, but there is no support in case of any problems.  

I've had IMF Monitors and now the KEF 104 a/b so i do know the KEF signature sound, just can't pull the trigger.