Is it important to long demo or own HIGH END gear to have a fair accurate view about it?

@dayglow yes room is important.  

@ghdprentice great point.  You need time with really good gear in a good room set up properly so you can gauge what is actually possible. The more gear you hear the better. It allows you decide where the diminishing returns are. 

@jacobsdad2000 you also make a great point about misinformation. That’s why it’s important to hear it for yourself 

Listening (as opposed to hearing) is a skill that can be honed even if you’re hearing isn’t stellar. IMHO....any critical equipment evaluations should be long term if you’re trying to decipher subtle differences....high end, or even just "good" equipment. Otherwise, you’re essentially just getting acquainted with a system during an initial listen. Not a great time or method of knowing much about what you just heard, yet that’s the extent of the exposure many of us have to gear we don’t own. It’s not so different than when you first meet people.....some you can get a bit of a feel for initially, but it can take a while to get to know a person (or a new system) well enough to make any long term decisions about their finer points.

You can’t really understate the significance of a room, and the synergy that a system within the room has on the overall impact of the sound. That’s one of the reasons I don’t have much faith in A/B comparisons, or evaluations done in an environment where you’re not intimately familiar with every aspect of a system.

@mitch2 man you are right in the money.  I worked collections attorney for an audio company about 15 years ago. For 5-7 years because the owner was an audiophile. I would get 2,3,4 month demos with great gear while he was selling it and purchasing other stuff. It allowed me to try out of my league equipment in my own home environment. Which eventually led to me being able to afford the gear and hearing more gear. I have heard all of the higher priced gear out here. Some at shows or in shop. Also in home environments. But most importantly I gained experience in knowing what is good and bad or just ok. It wasn’t always based on price either. I speak on it because I own it.  Have owned it or had long demos of it. In my additional job as a dealer now. I get to hear Greta gear through our partners. I don’t randomly give my opinion with no knowledge like I see some do here.