where do you go to test speakers?

[RoQuEr]

I expected circuit city to have a big ol testing room, but they only do for car speakers. Where do you go to do a side by side test of various speakers? I know my town has a bose store, and a sound advice, but I think they are car only as well.

[svadas]

The reality of the situation is that you can't. Circuit and Best Buy don't care to set anything up properly. A high end shop will have things set up, but they will also in general be driving them with very expensive equipment that you won't have in your house. A high end shop will let you take stuff home to try out though. The caveat being though that the high end shop is going to charge a lot more money for stuff, though not always. Some internet brands will also let you try out in your home, but you have to pay shipping back. It's really a tough call. Most good stuff can't even be sold on the internet.

[shelland]

It's a matter of finding a place that has more than one speaker you're interested in. The Circuit City's in my area have demo rooms for non-car speakers. I demo'd Polk Audio there back when I was in the market. However, they didn't carry anything else that I was interested in.

I would definitely recommend checking out some stereo shops in addition to the national chains. While you can certainly spend more than you can dream of at these stores, I found that they also offer better product for the same or less money than offered at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.

Give Infinity, JBL, Polk Audio, etc a listen at the national chains, but I'd highly recommend checking out Paradigm, B&W, etc at some stereo shops.

Most importantly, get some direction regarding what to listen to from the internet, but spend money one what sounds good to YOU.