Here’s how to know if you bought a great speaker or headphone – CNET

How do you really know if your new speaker, headphone, amplifier, receiver, digital converter or turntable is any good?

One sure sign is that it keeps you coming back for more. If it’s great, it may even keep you from checking Facebook or Instagram for hours on end. When you find yourself just listening to your favorite music, without multitasking, that’s a really good sign.

Then again, if your new audio purchase bores you after a few tunes, you should probably return it. That advice holds true for cheap ear buds or the most exalted high-end audio toy. If it doesn’t breathe life into music or movies, it’s not worth keeping around.

A store’s Wharfedale speakers on the left and Dynaudios on the right

Steve Guttenberg/CNET

Back in the day when I was an audio salesman, that’s the advice I gave my customers who were unsure they were making the right decision. In the end sound quality is impossible to quantify. Sound is ephemeral, so folks get nervous they didn’t buy the best one. Some were so overwhelmed by the choices they could never make a decision, and continued to listen to whatever they had.