Regardless of his hearing acuity, I would never guarantee that he would like the sound of the speaker UNLESS he could actually listen to the speakers for himself.
He could have the best hearing acuity in the world, and I still would never guarantee unless he could listen to the speakers for himself.
I usually ask what someone has heard, that impressed them. Sometimes, they acknowledge that what they heard was far from affordable but if I'm familiar and it's in their price range, I can usually make a pretty good recommendation. That's how I know when certain speakers are too bright for some applications- I have often the ones mentioned to me in large, bare rooms, large decorated rooms and in-between because I try to become familiar with as much equipment as possible. I'm not sure acuity trumps personal preference, the Harmon DBT aside. If most of those in that test preferred the same speakers, the speakers must have something that works for them, possibly better phase/time alignment.
I'm in a similar situation as you are in regards to dealership. I have 5 RBH SX-T2/R for people to audition. I would like to add more speakers later when I have more room. I imagine most dealers are this way now, and this is precisely my point. When I called my KEF dealer, he didn't even have a single pair of speakers for me to audition! My Revel dealer had exactly one pair of M22 bookshelf speakers. PSB had 1 pair, Paradigm had 1 pair. Monitor Audio didn't have any. Practically most dealers around me only have 1 pair to show, if they even have any. The only exception was my B&W dealer, but we'll see how long they last in this day and age.
So depending on where he lives, he may not even be able to audition more than 7 different brands of speakers, hardly a "needle in a haystack" scenario.
I'm in the Milwaukee area and we only have a few B&M stores, aside from Beast Buy/Magnolia and only one really has a good demo room. Rooms filled with other speakers is a poor way to audition equipment- the sound from the ones in use impacts the others, resulting in energy being absorbed and sometimes, sympathetically reinforced. I went to the two best stores in the past week and a half- one speaker pair sounded great, but they're $13,500/pair and were driven by about $30K worth of Audio Research equipment. The others were $8K, although I don't know all of the details for the rest of the equipment, but it wasn't as expensive. That pair didn't impress me, although I'm sure the listening position wasn't optimal because I could hear the changes as I moved around the room.
Re: B&W- I know Beast Buy sells them, but the dealer with the $13.5K speakers was a B&W dealer and now that B&W is owned by a group, the relationship with this long-time dealer soured and the lines were dropped. The sell Sonus Faber, KEF, Linn, Vandersteen and something that slipped my mind. I only listened to the Sonus Faber but I would like to check out the small KEF speakers that have one driver location.
I guess the size of the haystack depends on the location and willingness of the consumer to go elsewhere to see what's out there. It's a direct result of people buying mail-order, based on price and has made it almost impossible to make a choice based on actual experience.
I consider myself an audio enthusiast and I have failed a few times trying to play with fancy EQs. So there is no way most people without the equipment and experience could effectively use a worthy high-end EQ. And this is also my point. The OP probably doesn't have the equipment, cash, or experience to buy a great EQ system.
So the best thing for the OP to do, especially with his more limited hearing acuity, is to see how many different brands of speakers he could actually be able to audition and then just start from there. He may only have access to 7 different brands.
