Hilde, I haven’t fully thought through every instance of product purchases, but I have a very strong feeling audio demos are far more difficult to undertake than any other sort of thing. The reason being that at the level most of us are in, rarely is it the case that an entire system, from source right through amplification and final delivery, are designed, synced and pieced together by a single hand or brand. For the non-professional, performance cars, golf clubs, bicycles, jetskis and the like almost always come in fully developed form - think of how crazy it would be to have an amateur put together an entire car by themselves…the results will inevitably fall way short of the kind of completeness that the complexity of automobile manufacture demands. Even matching specific golf club heads to the particular sort of shaft that works best for a golfer takes deep experience, when engaged at a high level.
The problem we face as audiophiles is that what we do is little more than a hobby…. there is little of professional outcome about it, unless one reviews equipment for other hobbyists. And yet, our little hobby involves the highly complex act of piecing together various components, cabling, isolation and electromagnetic accessories to arrive at a ‘product’ we call our ‘system’ - it is analogous to one who loves weekend driving as a hobby, tasked with developing and building a performance car for one’s own driving abilities, for a particular period in time. Given the level and quality most of us aspire for and strive to achieve, we are, effectively, amateurs engaged in the complex production of a professional experience.
It is nothing short of incredulous, in fact.
As such, I truly see no parallels between auditioning components for a hifi system, compared with test driving fully developed cars, tennis rackets, snowboards, or motorcycles. At best, one or two elements may yield marginally felt advantageous for the amateur, for which recommendations from the related manufacturer would probably be already in place. The test drive of a car, as example, involves merely getting into the drivers seat and taking off - one is engaged with the intimate equivalent of the listening experience from the get-go. That of a component of a sound system involves a rather more inconvenient series of related acts, in the contextual equivalent of affixing wheels and choosing tyres, adjusting suspension, damping and brakes for the specific kinds of roads and tracks one will be driving on, before the actual test driving even begins. It takes far more effort on the part of both dealer and client to facilitate.
So, no, I don’t feel it necessary to offer a fee, let alone have one expected of me, in relation to testing cars or other kinds of sport equipment. With all of that, I test for best fit with my needs or specific wants, period. With hifi, I’m am not merely looking for best fit between me and another fully developed product, but educating myself on the far more complex equivalent of various components and products that may or not contribute to a more immersive driving experience, with possibility of a component becoming a part of my existing ‘car’. The audition becomes far more profound, complicated, and necessary of compensation for a dealers time and effort.
I hope this makes sense to you!
In friendship - kevin
