How To Audition Speakers: Your Personal Listening Methods

[Kali157]

When someone asks for speaker recommendations, the more experienced members often suggest to listen to speakers and decide for yourself. Unfortunately, it is quite daunting to walk into a show room and listen to speakers. Where do you begin? What do you look for? What do you avoid?

So I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where we can share our methods for auditioning speakers. I wish to try and limit this to auditioning speakers specifically. My hope is that this thread becomes a resource for less experienced members (like myself) so speaker auditioning can be fun, productive, and less intimidating. I also hope that this would be a place where we can get constructive feedback on our methods. After all, there are quite a few pitfalls and variables when auditioning.

So what music or movies do you bring?
What equipment do you bring (if any)?
What methods do you follow to setup the showroom and equipment for your audition?
What variables do you try to control and how?
What is your actual process for auditioning?
What questions do you ask?

I am sure I forgot some steps. Feel free to fill them in.