Convincing your local dealer to let you try speakers at home

+1 @bill_k and that’s what I did. The dealer lent me speakers on Saturday evening and I dutifully brought them back Monday and actually ended up buying the next model up. To me, a brick n mortar dealer’s core strength is giving the ability for listening auditions both in store and at home unless we’re talking about bohemeth speakers where it just might not be logistically feasible, but the 0/96 is definitely not that. If you’ve got two dealers and one has a very subpar listening room I agree with @stereo5 and get on the phone with DeVore and he might have something to say to these dealers. I certainly would if I was him. BTW, if you have a Joseph Audio dealer within driving distance I’d highly suggest giving their Perspective 2 a listen as they’re in the same price range. And if you end up buying them go back to both DeVore dealers and let them (and DeVore) know they lost a potential sale because they’re not customer centric and/or weren’t willing to make the effort.  I’d think losing a $13k sale would get their attention because they don’t seem to value the customer and maybe they’ll rethink the next time a guy like you comes through the door.  Best of luck.

I've had mixed results, mostly positive, but it's been 20 years since I did a home audition.

I had a local dealer that I had done business with for a long time, that would let me take home any speakers he had for an extended period, e.g. 1-2 weeks.

There was another local dealer from whom I bought my most recent pair of speakers, who would let me home demo only if I paid a fee.  Part of the fee was refundable if I bought the speakers, and part was not.  The dealer was not gonna deliver nor set up.  It was the non-refundable part that made me balk.  This was after auditioning several pairs of speakers in the shop, and deciding which speaker brand I wanted.  I wanted to home demo the floor standing model first, and if that didn't work, the bookshelf model.  The odd that neither would work seemed unlikely given the size of my room.

I ended up buying from a distributor I had dealt with in the past.  He shipped the fairly large speakers from St. Louis, and a dealer from Austin who happened to be vacationing in SF (I was in Marin) came over and set them up.  If I didn't like the speakers, I just had to pay for return shipping.

Well, let’s face it: convincing a dealer to let you audition speakers (Full size not half speakers aka “bookshelves”) at home is very difficult. Unless the dealer is a friend, not just any dealer. Much easier with cables, components, etc.

@hilde45 the place your refering to is mostly used gear. I wouldn't think there would be a problem.  Even the music room will give you 14 days. Sure you need to plunk down the money first but they don't get upset when you  return something.  I live right down the road from them and pu and return so there is never any shipping charges.  

I've has two experiences - one bad and one good.  When I purchased my Focal Electra 1027  speakers in 2007, the dealer where I auditioned them was a jerk. He wasn't ready when I drove 60 miles for our appointment. He ended the session after 45 minutes and wouldn't  let me take them home on approval. So instead of paying him $8,000 for them which I was willing to do for his time and trouble (which was very little), I bought them new online for $5,000 from Canada.

Recently I purchased some smaller bookshelf speakers from Upscale Audio. They have a 60 day return policy, no questions asked. I did return the speakers and got my refund (but had to pay to ship them back).  I don't know whether that applies to big ticket items but I was pleased with how I was treated.