Do You Buy Speakers Without Hearing Them?

There is no substitute for listening IMHO.  I auditioned many box speakers, but once I heard Maggies I was sold.  I have had good success with electronics, buting McIntosh used.  If I wanted to sell, I could always get all my money back.  My tube preamp bought 17 years ago is worth more than I paid, same for my mono bloc amps.

I understand the issues with travel, but before spending serious $$ I would go on a road trip.  I am a buy and hold kind of guy, so the effort becomes an adventure with a long term reward.

I have a found a way to listen to speakers for my main system before making a purchase. I think speakers are the most important component, so I have insisted on hearing speakers before I buy and comparing choices. I wouldn't say I will always do that because it does limit Your choices, but so far that's been my practice. I have not always auditioned speakers for a secondary system, with mixed results 

Magazine reviews? They are ALWAYS positive, when have you ever seen a negative review from stereophile? TAS? Hifi+? If every product review is positive, which it can’t be, there is always a product that comes in second/3rd, etc.

Sound thru YouTube sucks, even going thru a good audio system.

The best bet is to go listen to speakers at an audio show, fly to a city to a dealer that has them, or buy online with a 30 day money back guarantee. I have multiple friends fly across the country to hear some speakers, both dealt with buying $100,000+ speakers and they wanted to hear them. If I would want to buy their speakers, I would just fly to their house for a listen.
For speakers $10k or less, I would buy them and if I didn’t like them send them back or resell them. I went to many audio shows to listen to My last couple of pairs of speakers because if they sounded good in a hotel room, I can get them to sound better in a custom built dedicated room. 

Only once. Boutique brand (Salk) which had no dealers; only sold direct .  No regrets.

Everyone has different wallets and use case scenarios. In general, if I’m buying bookshelf speakers for use in my den in the $1000 to $1500 range, I bought them without hearing, based on reviewers I’ve watched enough of to know what they like, i.e. Steve Gutenberg likes "lively in your face" speakers, but when he reviews he’ll tell you if he hears that or not. So, I bought some Wharfedale Diamond 12.2 and am very happy with them.

However, I’m getting ready to buy my "real" speakers around $5K for my living room. I’m 65 and want these to be my "last" speakers, so yeah, I want to hear them.

Fortunately, I live within about an hour from an Audio Advice who carry the speakers I’m considering, so I’ll go hear them first.

It is a pity because even those speaker companies that offer generous return privileges are up against people who just don’t want all the reboxing, and shipping hassles. For that reason, I’ll likely never consider Zu or Tekton, or even though they have some interesting models I’d sure love to hear.

I know the chance to buy direct saves money (quite a bit), but I still wish there were a business model around where in a few cities these brands could set up a system and you could go hear them, maybe offer the speakers and a system to a record store, an art gallery, or even a restaurant or a car dealership to set up in a corner. It would be a "win-win" for both parties, without messing up the dealer direct model.