How do you audition speakers at a store?


I would love to know how you all audition speakers in a store. 

Here's my context, which may help explain my question. While I'm not as experienced, knowledgable, or wealthy (!) as many of you, I'm not new to this game, and for the last 35+ years I've made all my serious purchases through one store that I trusted (Take 5, in New Haven). I knew the rooms/acoustics in the store, I knew the owner, and I felt comfortable spending hours there listening to music, often just trying things out. I once spent six hours in one day comparing Maggies, which I ended up buying, with other speakers. I'm sure this sounds familiar to you all. Alas, the owner recently sold the store, it moved location, and, as I live 5-6 hours away now, I'm not inclined to try learn a new environment and a new staff. (I do wish them good luck, though!)

So I find myself without a safe harbor. There are at least four different speakers that I want to hear, in at least three different dealer locations. It's a big purchase for me, in the $4,000-$7,000 range. I feel like a rookie! I'll bring some of my own music and q-tip my ears in the morning, but:

What tricks do you have for leveling the playing field, moving past the psychoacoustic "tricks" that dealers might have to promote one speaker over another or simply the difficulty of mentally trying to hear a speaker as it's going to sound in your own house? I was reading in another recent thread that "Many speakers are voiced to impress during a quick audition, often with a "smiley" EQ." (The poster candidly admitted that he loved them in the store but after a few hours at home they were too bright.) Especially if I can't compare speakers side by side--that is, if I'm going to different locations--what recommendations do you have for minimizing the initial WOW that can happen (because a dealer is a good salesman, because the speakers play "big," because the oriental rug in the room is sooo beautiful, because the room acoustics in one store are better than another, because the amp/components/cables are WAY better than anything I'll ever own, etc)? I also have read that we may be initially drawn to certain acoustic qualities that can shine at first listen but may grate or disappoint later. 

In short, what are your methods for listening "past" a store's environment and the excitement of listening to a new sound ... and hear the real speaker as it will sound in your own space ... for years to come?

I don't know that it matters but I'm going to start my search looking at Kef (Ref1), Harbeth (C7ES-3, 30.1), and Spendour. If I can find a Joseph Audio dealer, I'd love to hear the Pulsars.

Finally: thank you to this community for accepting and welcoming newbies to this culture!
northman

Showing 2 responses by cd318

Make a test tracks CDR as it saves a lot of time swapping discs (you could also stream a playlist).

In this way you can listen to familiar tracks which can represent issues you are most concerned with.

For example,

1 Track 1 could be a spoken / audiobook recording which could help in assessing accuracy of vocal reproduction.

Especially useful in locating crossover issues between woofer and tweeter if app.

2 Track 2 could be a well recorded Heavy Metal track which will highlight dynamics.

3 Track 3 could be a female (or even male) vocal track which errs on sibilance.
If it bothers you at the store, it’s likely to bother you even more at home.

4 Track 4 could be a recording which has strong lifelike tonal textures. Are these speakers bleaching them out somewhat?

You can do the same for imagery, timing, detail, bandwidth etc etc. Just bear in mind you will not find perfection, and there will always be serious compromises. All loudspeakers are far from being perfect.

So it’s a question of finding what you like and avoiding what you don’t within your budget of course. Thankfully the law of diminishing returns kicks in fairly quickly above 2k when it comes to loudspeakers.

It won’t always be love at first sight, or listen, and juggling all the various factors can be a difficult decision.

Getting a result you can enjoy is important because this will affect the sound of your system like nothing else can. You might even get to know yourself a bit better as a result of all these endeavours.

The result could be the second most important relationship in your life (or possibly even the first! - but I would be never say that of course).
@bhakhti-rider, my speakers are large and heavy but still... I like your suggestion. I can't recall anyone suggesting something so obviously sensible before. Especially if you intend to spend a serious amount of money.

This combined with prof's 'human subjective speaker measurement' technique, it's clear I'm just not taking speaker auditioning seriously enough. 

Generally though, I've not had too many problems with bad purchases apart from a couple of designs where the initial barely perceptible sibilance issue later became unbearable when I began rotating the volume switch clockwise.

This sibilance problem soon became so stressful that I was afraid to play unfamiliar music on them. Somehow I became obsessed with listening for it and found myself playing more far more music on my modest second system.

Eventually I had to accept that I had made a serious mistake, and it was no one's fault but mine. Hence the decision to go in armed with test tracks in future.

Therefore I would also like to add that you should ask for your music to be played back at least as loud as your normal home playback levels. 

For me that's when faults and weaknesses start becoming easier to identify.

I could also suggest that listening to nice well recorded 'plinkety plonkety' jazz is more akin to having a cup of tea or coffee with a potential job applicant, when perhaps in our case a serious grilling under a bright light is a more appropriate attempt at discovering the inevitable (sometimes well-hidden) compromises that all loudspeakers possess.