I think the only way to get a system that sounds good to you is to listen to a lot of speakers. The reviews are great as a starting point, to narrow down the field of speakers you listen to. But all those graphs and charts, and "expert" evaluations don't tell you what your ears will hear.

About 8 years ago my wife and I decided to upgrade (replace) our great early 1970s stereo system. We picked out some CDs we really liked, a mix of classical, jazz, rock, folk, and tramped around the area to places that sold Dynaudio, B&W, Mirage, Canton, etc., speakers for weeks to find the speakers that sounded best to us. Finally, it came down to Dynaudio's lower-end HT speakers and B&W within our price range. We found a place that had both, so we could listen pretty close to side-by-side.

In addition to getting the speakers we liked, we got to listen to a lot of good equipment.