Convincing your local dealer to let you try speakers at home

I have long-standing relationships with two local dealers.  I can audition any speaker and any piece of gear at home. If the speakers are too large to fit in my car, the dealers will deliver them to me and set them up.

I, of course, would have auditioned the speakers at the dealer's store first prior to imposing on them.

Bottom line - it's about having a good working relationship with your dealer.

Good comments. I like these dealers a lot, so this is really not about them. We have not even discussed this topic. I think they're fantastic guys and so this post is really about the general practices around borrowing speakers.

It says something about the industry and margins involved that this is so difficult. I mean, people take $60k cars for test drives all the time, buy enormous televisions and return them, etc. etc. FFS, you give them your credit card, they take a few pictures, you establish an understanding about damage, etc. and off you go. 

The notion that you can get speakers shipped to you via Upscale or TMR or Music Direct or Audio Advice and return them means that the dealer who is completely unwilling to allow try-to-buy is still on a different path. I'm not saying that doesn't have it's own logic to it -- after all, if you're selling an in-demand product, then you don't need to please the guy who needs to try. For *that* sale. But as many here have said, there's more at stake when there is a potential to build a relationship. One pair of speakers leads to another, leads to preamps and cables and more. 

@decooney  "Buy" with a discussion around Return Policy may be a more acceptable approach.
That's a good thing to keep in mind. Thanks.

@knighttodd 
I've bought and returned to TMR before. That's a good way to go if the other routes don't pan out.

@bipod72 
I've done the Crutchfield thing. I tried Martin Logan's for a month (they allowed up to 2 months) and when I shipped them back the shipping charge was $10 per speaker. Yes, you read that right. Pretty amazing. But they're not carrying what I'm interested in, now.

@duckworp 
An audition fee is an interesting idea. You have had great luck with your dealers -- the brands you have auditioned at home are among those which other posters here have ruled out as possible. You're bending the curve, buddy!

@wolf_garcia  

I'll never buy speakers again without a serious audition as I've had to return a pair of ZUs, sell a pair of Sonists and a pair of Heresy IVs...you think I'd learn.

Haha! I hear you! Exactly where I'm at.

    
@ozzy62 

If the dealer was able to get them to sound even mildly mediocre in that setting, they should be absolutely out of this world in your room.

I'm not as comfortable as you are extrapolating regarding how things will sound with my gear in my room. Especially for $13k speakers.   

First, we ALWAYS brought the item to the customer's home and set it up for him/her.  We MADE SURE it was working properly when we left, and yes, of course we took a check or credit card (things were slightly different in the "old days" of the 1970's-80's)

Naturally, we both examined the item(s) and agreed on their condition and we had  form that they signed agreeing.  This was before smartphones, so pictures, other than poor-resolution Polaroids were difficult.

In all my years of business with the highest-end gear, I NEVER had a problem with this policy.  If I did not know the customer, by delivering the gear to their home, I got a good idea of what was going on.  The credit card was insurance, so I never worried.  I would say about 3/4 of the time they kept the hardware and close to 1/2 the time they kept the speakers.

Going out and setting up whatever it was helped me make the sale.  If your dealer does not do this, I would find another dealer if you can.

Cheers!

Folks are hostile to MQA because there is no trust where funny business that is not explained is going on. I was appalled at Absolute Sounds promotion of it. It sounds like an attempt to reproduce the flaws of vinyl- overly smooth, rolled-off highs. If one knows the sound profile of Meridien speakers and electronics, it’s that.

 I far prefer high-res Quboz, much more realistic to my ears.

I can borrow anything because of long-standing relationships.  But, if I were a dealer I would not let anyone borrow gear for an audition.  These days, people audition stuff with no intention of buying--they try dealer gear and then go looking for better deals on the internet (used, grey market, whatever).  I know a dealer who lent two amps to a person and later found out that two other several other dealers did the same; the "customer" held an audio shootout with his friends just for fun and then returned the gear.  

Dealers basically lend their floor models out, which means they are out of a demonstration piece until it is returned.  They cannot lend out something "new" out of the box because it is then no longer "new."  One has to wonder about those on-line dealers that offer a limited trial period; do they sell a returned piece as new?  Would you like to buy a new speaker that may have been shipped around to various other people and having undergone such additional handling, potential abuse from someone cranking the volume way up, etc.?

If you are a customer that is fair to the dealer, dealers will do quite a bit to accommodate your plans.  I once asked a local dealer about the high end linestage models of two brands he carried.  He had neither models in his shop.  But, he was willing to buy both models as demonstration models (the lowest price from a distributor) if I promised to buy one of them (handshake deal).  He got in the Levinson No. 32 linestage first, I tried it at home, liked it, and bought it without requiring him to bring in the VTL model I was also interested in.  Another local dealer built a pair of customer speakers, each is more than 4.5 feet wide, almost 9 feet tall and about 4 feet deep.  It took a rental of a mini tractor to make the deliver/install at the customer's house.  The customer's wife hated it and the dealer took the speakers back.  I don't know what the financial arrangement was for the return, but, can you imagine how hard it is to find a space for two such giant speakers and how hard it must be to find a new buyer? Such service still exists, but it only exists if there are both good dealers and customers and not where both parties are trying to get the drop on the other.