I guess this merely proves what everyone says....you should hear the speakers with your own ears.
Hearing them with your own hears is a great start but you won’t truly know what they will sound like (timbre, soundstage, imaging etc…) until you listen to them in your own room. Room acoustics and speakers and listener placement will profoundly effect how speakers sound which is often a reason different people report such differences when reviewing speakers.
Your mind is going to play tricks on you when you now when you listen to some speakers because of what you’ve been reading about them. If you bring home the Energys above you may likely hear (if you’re sensitive to it) an exaggerated timbre mismatch with the center because now your going to really be listening for it. And since no two speakers even identical ones in two different locations (side vs center placement) will ever timbre match perfectly there will be a mismatch to hear.
You’ve done a great job researching your purchase but in the end the only way you will get the speakers you want (not what someone else wants you to have) is to start listening to them yourself, preferably in your room over an extended period of time with the variety of material and media (movies, music, games) you plan to use.
I’m not sure what’s available in your area but one high end audio shop I found brought speakers and equipment out to my place and demoed them for me. Not sure if anything like that is available in your area but it might be worth asking around.
