Listen to a CD or LP in showroom?

@larryi - that's interesting - I was born and raised in Silver Spring (1951 - 1969) and I've never heard the term 'DMV' for that area, though that is clever. 

@trackmoe

I auditioned speakers with dealers that carried my integrated amp. The dealer wanted to make their speakers sound as good as possible and I controlled amplification. I wanted to hear the best possible through the speakers, so I was quite pleased when they used a streamer that I couldn’t possibly afford. BTW, as I valued the reproduction, I altered what I thought I could afford and it is quite possible that my current streamer is superior to the streamers used in the speaker audition. It is most important to match amplification to the speakers when auditioning.

It would have been useful if you would have posted your system on your profile. If you have heavy/rare amplifiers that can’t be taken to the dealer, nor found at the dealer, I would not have wasted your, or my time posting this suggestion.

@soix I have no idea why you are attacking him, His questions make perfect sense.

@grislybutter 

His questions are valid, but the tone was harsh.

While I agree that DAC, CD, vs TT/PS is pretty irrelevant. All can be optimized for the speakers… often that is good. But…

If you are looking at even mid priced speakers. They should hook up anything that they have in the store that you want. I recently went through an evaluation of some equipment. In this case it was integrated amps. I chose the speakers (75 pounds each) which they had to swapped in. Then we chose the DAC and streamer, then they swapped in the 75 pound amps… three of them in turn. Then we went back to what we thought was the best sounding amp.

No sale resulted… for a couple months. Then he bought better separates from the store.

So, I guess unless it is Best Buy they should allow you to choose the components.