Auditioning speakers

[Stiffy]

I'm off to my local hi fi dealer on Saturday afternoon to try some speakers out.

They've offered to take my Tannoys in part exchange and I've decided to have a listen to the Boston Acoustics A26 and Q Acoustics 2020i models.
Other than obviously making sure I like the sound of them is there anything specific to look out for or try when auditioning speakers?

Ideally I would have liked to have brought a pair of each home to try in my own room with my own equipment but the dealer has never been keen to allow this in the past.
Although they have said they will exchange anything within a reasonable time frame if not entirely satisfied.

[Barry]

I'm off to my local hi fi dealer on Saturday afternoon to try some speakers out.

They've offered to take my Tannoys in part exchange and I've decided to have a listen to the Boston Acoustics A26 and Q Acoustics 2020i models.
Other than obviously making sure I like the sound of them is there anything specific to look out for or try when auditioning speakers?

Ideally I would have liked to have brought a pair of each home to try in my own room with my own equipment but the dealer has never been keen to allow this in the past.
Although they have said they will exchange anything within a reasonable time frame if not entirely satisfied.


Any dealer worth dealing with would insist on a home audition. All he needs to do is to accept a cheque from you for the part-exchange value and let you have the speakers, say, for a weekend. Should you decide the speakers are not for you, you return them to the dealer and he in turn tears up the cheque.

That is how it is normally done.

[agk]

Take your amp, a source and a few tunes along with you maybe?
I've never auditioned a pair of speakers (never bought new for one thing) but that would seem a good idea.

[mr sneff]

I'd agree with Barry, hear them at home before committing to buying. I've had a couple of instances in the past where the speakers sounded great in the dealers demonstration room and awful in my room.

[John]

You really need to hear them in your own home Speakers are very room dependent

[purite audio]

Home home home , rooms make a huge difference to SQ, ideally gather a few possibles, and compare them at your leisure.
Keith

[Reffc]

Home home home , rooms make a huge difference to SQ, ideally gather a few possibles, and compare them at your leisure.
Keith

This has to be the best advice summed into one sentence.

[Macca]

I've never auditioned a speaker before I bought it. I think you only need to worry about room/speaker interface if the speaker is big and the room is small or if the speaker is an odd design. Never had any issues except for trying to get small speakers to do a bit of prescence and volume in a big room.

Having said that of you are buying new from a dealer I think a home dem should be a given for anything costing north of a monkey. Trouble is that unlike amps and cd players you can't make a good speaker for peanuts so brand new speakers are expensive even if they are not that accomplished. You will get a lot more for your money with a juducious used purchase.

[Yomanze]

Yeah I think the room speaker interface is much less important when listening to standmounts in semi-nearfield (like I do).

[purite audio]

I suppose the other consideration is to make sure that the amplifier you are using for the comparison is capable of really driving all the loudspeakers you intend to evaluate.
I agree completely about standmounts, generally they produce less low bass and excite the room less,I would still want to hear them in my room though.
Keith.