Quote Originally Posted by JonW
First impressions hold true, eh? OK, good to know. I'm just concerned the speakers will be like music- the songs you like right away, you get sick of. The songs you hate right away you hate almost always. But some songs in the middle don't knock your socks off right away, but become the mroe meaningful, long-term favorites for years. You know what I mean.

OK, I'll have a look at those other companies if I can. Thanks.
The same holds for some speakers. If, for example, there is a "hump" in the bass of the frequency response of a speaker, it may sound great at first hearing, but may be very undesirable later with a different recording. First impressions do not always hold true. (Also, two speakers rated at 35-20kHz +/- 3dB may have considerable differences in the frequency response curve, such that one has elevated bass near the low end, and the other may have diminished bass near the low end, so there can be as much as 6 dB difference between the two, even if the ratings are perfectly accurate and measured according to the same standards.)

When selecting speakers, you should listen to every type of music that you ever listen to, as certain kinds of flaws are more objectionable with some music than others.

If you want "accurate" speakers, I strongly suggest that you listen to some live acoustic music first, and then listen to recordings of similar acoustic music. (It has to be acoustic music, or you will be listening to speakers in the live performance, which will tell you what some speakers sound like, not instruments.) "Accurate" speakers reproduce acoustic music more like hearing it live than "inaccurate" speakers.

I personally am fond of ribbon tweeters, found in speakers like Magnepan and many Aurum Cantus speakers, among others.

As for the lack of fairness in comparing speakers in different rooms, there is probably not much you can do about it. But you should also realize that even if you stick two speakers side by side in the same room and hook them to the same equipment, you still wouldn't have a fair comparison, for at least three reasons. First, being not exactly in the same place, they won't sound the same. Second, different speakers can require different placement for them to sound their best. Third, different speakers often differ in efficiency, so that one will sound louder than the other with the same amplifier with the same volume control setting. This is a far more serious problem than it may appear at first, because human hearing is not linear, and as volume decreases, bass and treble subjectively seem to diminish faster than midrange, so that the louder of two speakers (if otherwise identical) will sound like it has more bass and treble, giving a "richer", more pleasing sound. (Many pieces of equipment, especially old two channel equipment, have Loudness Compensation circuits to boost the bass [and sometimes also the treble] that can be used when listening at lower volumes because of this aspect of human hearing.)

One last point: You are not asking a philosophical question in your original title; you are asking a question about your personal preferences, which, ultimately, you must decide for yourself.