My problem with listening tests is that they're misleading unless properly controlled. You will not gain anything useful from 99% of what you can do at a store. Different speaker locations, not blind, mismatched volume, delays between sources, etc. Best to go off measurements and budget.
I could not disagree more.
I mean, perhaps store auditions haven't worked out for you so I can't speak to that. But in my experience, auditions of speakers - be it at friends/acquaintances/stores...even sometimes audio shows - have been very valuable. I can get a very good idea of the sound of a speaker at a store, especially when I'm able to play with speaker position/listening position, and hear my own test tracks. I am never surprised by the sound of a speaker that I auditioned elsewhere, that I ended up using at home. Usually I hear the very characteristics that drew me in at the audition, but dialed in to even better effect in my home. That's not uttery surprising - as Floyd Toole has told us, we have the ability to often "listen through the room" to hear the general characteristics of a speaker (above certain frequencies). I've always found that to be the case.
I think speaker measurements tend to be more useful to certain people in terms of knowledge and mindset. Some people can look at the measurements and, to the degree they care about, have a good idea if they'll like it. Some people just want as accurate as possible, select speakers that measure that way, and then don't think more about it and get on listening, attributing anything they don't like to the source material.
All of which is great if you are the type of person who this works for.
Personally I've never been able to gain enough from measurements to tell me how much I'll like a speaker, or if I'll want to keep listening. I've auditioned plenty of speakers that measure very well that left me looking at my watch, ready to leave after only a few tracks. I've also auditione speakers that measure pretty well, and some "not so well," that I loved. So the "best to go off measurements" will depend on the individual, it seems to me.