Would you pay to audition speakers

I would pay for real service - eg, if the dealer brought speaker to my home, set it up etc.

I would also pay "rent" if I needed to evaluate them at my home for an unusually long time.

If he loaned them to me for a few days and I had to carry and set them up myself, then I wouldn't pay anything except perhaps leave a deposit if requested.

I would not pay for in-store demos. Showing something you are trying to sell is part of retail. The customer may not buy or buy elsewhere - all retailers take that chance and those who can't should not be in retail.

For me paying a small fee which refunded on buying is OK. After all the retailer also need to invest in buying these speakers, running the showroom, paying the cleaning ladies etc.

I guess that retailers have learned their lessons from audition with potential customers to find out that these customers then buy them online

I wonder what this dealer's policy is with past customers who made reasonably sized purchases. There is one local dealer who was guarded until I bought a couple things and now they are very open to auditions. My position is that unless a dealer invites me, I don't ask to audition unless I have genuine intentions of buying that specific item from them in the near future.

Yes, some people do use dealers to demo, then buy used cheaper. BIG DEAL. I'll gladly pay MORE to someone else than the dealer is charging, before I give 5.00 away, let alone 500.00 The 500.00 is no guarantee you'll like the speakers. This is not nor ever will be a good practice. Does a dealer ever guarantee speakers? New if something goes wrong? No, you only get a warantee.

Taters, I was sounding off before carefully reading your post.

I guess this dealer is so busy tallying their sales slips in these robust economic times that they don't have time for mere "shoppers". If they were working at the shoe counter at Nordstroms and you wanted to try every pair "for fun", on a Saturday, I could see where you could be stretching their Customer First policy. But this dealer must be selling big buck boxes if they think $500 is an appropriate ante to get in their door, and I would think they would be kissing your rear to even darken the entrance these days.

I might be a chronic tire kicker and so perhaps a target for this kind of "really great service", but I continue to buy gear in brick and mortar shops. Since I travel a fair bit, I also go to stores in different towns that carry equipment I don't have access to hear in my home town, or even combination's of gear I have not heard together before. I always state whether or not I am actually in the market to buy something. Sometimes I am, sometimes not. I value the shopkeepers opinions since they usually know much more than me and are enthusiastic about their products and my interest. But I do not value their insights to the tune of 5 "C" notes.

Adding to what Theo said, I would want that model to be handing me $50 glasses of wine with my demo. Maybe if I drank enough I would actually buy something from them...