If you go to a big box store, or even a medium-sized store, you're likely to encounter a switch box approach to speaker selling. Multiple pairs of speakers are lined up as if in a forest and the salesperson can play any of the many speaker models at the push of a button.
This same switch box method is also used in the smallest of shops where there's not enough space for a proper listening room.
The advantage of a switch box audition is its rapidity. While playing the same track of music, one can toggle through speaker models quickly.
The downside, of course, is that none of the speakers are properly set up to maximize their potential. In fact, none are set up at all. Plunked down upon a shelf, typically standing side-by-side like soldiers at attention, one can make accurate gross judgments about tonal balance preferences but not much else.
Contrast that demonstration mode with what used to be called the single speaker audition favored by some high-end audio shops. In this demonstration model (pioneered by UK brand Linn) only one pair of speakers were allowed in the room at a time.
The advantage of this approach is the potential for proper setup without any distractions. The downside is comparisons are more difficult for the inexperienced listener. Those not spending a lot of time auditioning and comparing audio products haven't yet built the skills necessary to hold in one's memory what one system sounds like when comparing to another.
Auditioning any products is a challenge.
Speakers are the greatest of them all.
