Gone are the days of the great audition.

Only a short while back we could go to multiple audio rooms in a town just around the corner and listen to all the styles and brands of speakers you wanted. Now of course, only the bargain speakers are available for audition at that yellow sign store and unless you are very lucky the exact model you are looking for isn't reachable for an hour or two drive, if that. I'm certain from the desperation in some the posts in this very forum, that people have purchased things solely on word of mouth or even just specs and looks. Dark ages of getting what you want and yet so much more available. There is so much reviewing and so little listening going on. I live in the DC metro and wanted to look for some towers in the 2k range. The two places I went only had a couple of towers in that range and I'm just not doing the yellow sign place. What do you do?