Listen to a CD or LP in showroom?

While I agree that DAC, CD, vs TT/PS is pretty irrelevant. All can be optimized for the speakers… often that is good. But…

If you are looking at even mid priced speakers. They should hook up anything that they have in the store that you want. I recently went through an evaluation of some equipment. In this case it was integrated amps. I chose the speakers (75 pounds each) which they had to swapped in. Then we chose the DAC and streamer, then they swapped in the 75 pound amps… three of them in turn. Then we went back to what we thought was the best sounding amp.

No sale resulted… for a couple months. Then he bought better separates from the store.

So, I guess unless it is Best Buy they should allow you to choose the components.

@grislybutter Re-reading my post, you’re right and my apologies to the OP for the tone, but I stand by questioning his issue for the reasons stated above. 

You could have asked the same questions minus your attitude.

OP, no matter what medium is hooked up, you're still not going to get an accurate representation of the sound as it pertains to your home listening environment.

The room, amp, pre, power cables, interconnects, etc. would have to be identical to yours.

The best you can do is listen, and if you like that particular speaker's sound, arrange an audition in your home to see how they sound there.

The very very best Speaker Performance is when the Design is produced and trialled in the carefully selected environment to carry out the Testing of the design.

From that point on the variables with environments these designs are to function in are all quite different/unique.

One hopes a dealership demonstrating speakers has done something with the listening environment to help with creating a sound that is improved.

I do not see a dealership having a environment that is a mimic of a Manufacturers Testing Environment.

The same situation passes down to the Purchaser, they certainly may not have any attention given to the Listening environment in their home.

The Purchaser that has taken the time to create a environment with a selection of acoustic controls, or hired the services from a professional body, again will not have a mimic for a Dealers Environment and definitely not the Manufacturers.

A CD, Vinyl LP or Music File are only going to supply a music that one is familiar with, it is not going to create the end product sound.

The end product sound is going to be produced by the speaker, and that sound is very environment dependent, for it to meet 'what it says in the tin' qualities.    

I would just call ahead to the various dealers that you plan on visiting and tell them you want to bring your own CD's and LP's.  This way, they can move some CD transports and turntables around as needed in anticipation of your arrival.