The 'try before you buy' phenomenon has been largely muted by the rise of online shopping. Even a clothing store's Try Before You Buy service involves you having to wait for clothes to be delivered before you can try them on. Well, US electronics retailer Crutchfield is offering a way round such an innate impracticality of online shopping with its newly-launched SpeakerCompare service.
Integrated into the retailer's website, the online service aims to allow you to compare multiple home and car speakers simply using the website and a connected pair of headphones or speakers.
Naturally, the quality of sound you hear will depend on your source – laptop, phone...? – and the speakers or headphones you've connected. Of course, it won't take into account your home acoustics either. But the tool will, as designed, give you a taste of a speaker's sonic characteristics. How sensitive is the speaker? Does it err more on the rich or neutral side? Is it a bass fiend?
Will it really work? Well that's up to you to decide.
Of course, those wanting a true and tactile demo experience can of course order the old fashioned way and, if needed, take advantage of Crutchfield's 60-day money-back guarantee...
