Listening to equipment at home before you buy

Back in the late 70s, through the 80s and early 90s, I was very lucky to have a great audio dealer, some 90 miles from where I lived. I both spent many long night listening recessions in his shop and brought equipment back to my home for audition. During that period of time, I was able to buy, sell, trade or exchange (within my budget) some very nice audio gear, with that dealer. Also, I traveled quite a lot during that time period and made a point to check out all audio I could, in my travels.
Through the 2000s, I moved to a rather remote area and found myself having to down size - doing a good deal of selling and buying on line and having to deal with some of the horrors of shipping.
I'm now fortunate to be living in an area that, within 100 - 300 miles, has a few  good audio dealerships and a good many private individuals, buying, selling and trading audio gear.
It's my suggestion to the OP - you might consider used and if you're up to a bit of traveling - check out the for sale adds and converse (through the site/sites) with the sellers, to arrange a personal audition before buying. It may not be in your home, but at least, is in a home environment and you can see and hear, up front, what you might be getting, as well as make some new audiophile friends....Jim

jhills
I have no problem with used gear and have been watching items on Audiogon, US Audio Mart, Music Room etc. I will take your suggestion and see if the used seller is willing to allow an audition. Thanks for the reply!

Please remember you are assembling a system

Source, program, cables, loudspeakers, room acoustic all contribute.

Purchasing without a listen in your system puts you at risk of buying a pig in a poke or passing on an ugly duckling which is really a swan.

And don't forget the stress of driving 100 miles listening all the while to some incoherent egregious automobile system.

@ieales 
One usually has some idea of what kind of system would work for them in their space and on their budget; what kind of music they listen to; how loud they like to play their music, etc. Beyond that - It's not rocket science - just a few basic rules: Quality low capacitance, low inductance, high conductance speaker cables and ICs (they don't have to cost $10K) work very well with most all equipment and speakers, while high capacitance cables don't match well with high currant amps. Don't match a low efficient, hard to drive, set of speakers with a low powered amp - tube or SS. Match the size and character of your speakers to the space you've got to fill. Wither you stream, play CDs or LPs is personal choice and a mater of budget. If something of interest comes up, that peaks your interest and you think it might work well for you - google it, read reviews and ask your fellow AudioGoners. If it clicks all the boxes why be afraid to drive 100 miles to check it out.
Over the years I've auditioned many pieces of equipment somewhere other than in my own home and have never brought home a bad choice. Every room can  be made to sound better with a little time and attention to set up and a bit of treatment. Putting together and setting up a nice system within a given budget isn't as hard as it seems....Jim