Reference Hi-Fi Audition Day Checklist
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A printable checklist for preparing, running, and scoring a dealer or home audition of loudspeakers and amplification before you commit a serious budget.

[ ] Write a one-paragraph brief: the music you play most, the level you listen at, the room dimensions, and the hours per week the system will be used.
[ ] Measure your listening room: length, width, ceiling height, distance from your seat to the speaker plane, and distance from the speaker positions to the front wall.
[ ] Set a firm total budget and note the share you intend to hold back for stands, room treatment, and setup, using the Hi-Fi Budget Split Planner at /tools/hifi-budget-split/.
[ ] Load four reference tracks on a phone or USB drive: a solo voice, a sustained acoustic bass line, a dense orchestral or electronic passage, and one recording you know is poor.
[ ] Add two or three of your everyday favorites, since a system must please you on ordinary music, not only on demonstration material.
[ ] Look up sensitivity, nominal impedance, and minimum impedance for every loudspeaker on your shortlist and run them through the Amplifier Power and Headroom Calculator.
[ ] Ask the dealer in advance to demonstrate the speakers with the amplifier you intend to buy, or with one of similar power and load tolerance.
[ ] Ask which cables and sources will be in the chain, and request something sensible rather than the most expensive accessories in the store.
[ ] On arrival, sit at roughly your home listening distance and ask for the speakers to be placed at a similar distance from the wall as they would be at your house.
[ ] Play the same tracks in the same order on every system you hear that day, and keep the volume close to your real home level rather than the level the room invites.
[ ] Listen for the solo voice first: is it a natural size, placed clearly between the speakers, and free of hardness at the top of the range?
[ ] Listen to the acoustic bass line for pitch definition: can you follow each note, or does the low end blur into a single tone?
[ ] Listen to the dense passage for composure: does the system stay clear and unforced at climaxes, or does it harden and flatten?
[ ] Play the poor recording and note whether the system is honest about its flaws without making it unlistenable.
[ ] Stay with the system you like best for at least twenty minutes and note whether you want to keep listening or feel ready to stop; fatigue is the most honest signal you have.
[ ] Write your notes immediately after each system, before the next one plays, using the same short scoring scale for every candidate.
[ ] Ask about a home trial period, the return terms, and whether the demonstration pair can be delivered to your room for a weekend.
[ ] Ask whether the quoted price includes delivery, setup in your room, a burn-in or exchange period, and the transferability of the warranty.
[ ] Ask what the dealer would change first if the system sounded thin, bloated, or bright in your room, and note whether the answer is placement or another product.
[ ] Do not decide on the day; sleep on it, reread your notes, and compare each candidate against the brief you wrote before you left home.
[ ] Before paying, confirm in writing the exact model, finish, serial numbers, price, delivery date, and any trade-in value that formed part of the deal.