Some of it is trial and error and the whole living and learning thing. SD might disagree because he's crazy about researching things to death, but more power to him for being a very well informed consumer.
After going through and building up a living-room setup, I feel as though I learned a lot and the typical mantra of, 'if I knew then what I know now', I would have done a couple things differently. At the time SD recommended me looking into Salk, but I wasn't comfortable enough with the amount of background and knowledge of the company to purchase a speaker from an internet-direct company when it costs in the multi-thousand dollar range. Now I'm at the point where I would like to sell my current B&Ws and buy a pair of Salk HT2-TLs. Now I know the background of Salk, the hundreds of forum members who rave of their quality, and positive experiences people have had. I also now know that there are several people in my area who I can go audition them before purchasing.