2. speakers
  3. 153898-139027

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
northman OP
236 posts
 
Once again, thank you all.

ieales: "the onion in a Gibson"--that made me laugh! I know more or less exactly what I want and what my current speakers aren't doing for me, but that feels like a different thread to me. In fact, I'm not looking for speaker recommendations here, just trying to think about the process of auditioning multiple speakers in multiple stores. 

steve59: thank you. The closest store is about three hours away, and I want to hear at least a few different makes before committing. I don't mean to make this search a holy-grail search, but in the past I had one store that I trusted and worked with what they had (which was very good). But since I'm starting anew and traveling anyway, I'm going to take the opposite approach: try a few different places to try a few different speakers. 

Again, many thanks! I will take this up over the next couple months and see where I land. It'll be fun (I hope)...
rsf507
2,222 posts
 
OP one thing that I don’t recall anyone mentioning is if the store puts down speakers that you are considering but they don’t carry over what they are “promoting” run don’t walk!
ebm
9,311 posts
 
With 2 ears and an open mind.
bond-san
37 posts
 
Although I live in California, I have two daughters that live in the Boston area.  On occasion while visiting there, I've ventured out to check on some of the better audio stores, two of which were Goodwin's High End in Waltham MA, and Fidelis in Nashua NH.  I found both to be friendly and accommodating.  Fidelis is actually the US distributor of Harbeth Speakers so they will have all models for you to audition.  In my own experience, I find that my ears become accustomed to the signature sound of whatever speaker I've been listening to for a while.  When changing from my Dynaudio's to my Klipschorns, the Khorns were extremely harsh sounding, but over time the harshness disappeared.  Going back to the Dynaudio's, now they sounded muffled!  My current speakers are some DIY Electrostats that also upon first firing up sounded a bit bright. But that toned down eventually until I came back from a two week vacation, and they now returned to their perceived brightness!  So I guess what I'm trying to say is; if you can stand not listening to your Magnepans for a few days before your auditioning adventure, perhaps your ears will be less biased. 
prof
3,435 posts
 

What I do:

Bring music I'm familiar with and like.

I listen first however the speaker have been arranged by the store, just to get a quick read.  Then I ask for some position adjustments to be made (usually possible) of the speaker.  I play around with listening distance, speaker arrangements.  I make sure to set them up and listen from a distance that I use at home which tends to be closer - e.g. 6 1/2 to 7 feet.  Similar spread to what I have, though try other options.

I listen from usual distance, more distance to get a sense of how they interact with the room, then closer to nearfield.  I stand up and listen.  Crouch down to listen.  Listen from off-axis.  From behind.  From far away in the room.  Basically a walk-around.  It's almost like doing a human, Subjective "speaker measurement" in a way.


By the time I'm done have always have a very good read on the sound of the speaker.  I have never, ever been surprised by the sound of a speaker that I hear at my home, when I've auditioned them before-hand.   And when I encounter the same speaker in different set ups they still have the same recognizable "voice" I got from my audition.

Works for me :-)


More to discover