Would you rent a $14,000 DAC for $75 per day?

The odds of me doing that are the same as a cable maker admitting their products make no difference in objective testing.

I remember the days when there were any number of local or near local dealers with whom I could home demo for free (security deposit required), certainly a valuable service. I too see many possible negatives with this, I'd never be one on either side of this transaction, but who knows it could work, start a whole new business model for audiophiles to afford systems they couldn't otherwise afford. CableCo. and their lending library is example of business model that works for cable rentals.

Where did that idea come from? What's the rationale?

Many vendors have some sort of trial period, typically 30 days. The only thing for customer to pay is potentially return shipping. At $75/day, that is $27K/year, so about twice the purchase price.

For something like a party rental, nobody needs that kind of a DAC. 

So again, what is the business plan/rationale?

Right now, outside of local dealer lending, we have two choices to hear stuff in our homes.  Both go better with some up front research to make sure you have an idea of what you want first.

1. Buy something and sell it if it doesn’t work out for you, or
2. Buy something from a dealer (or manufacturer-direct) that offers a trial/return period.

The lending thing has issues that most would believe outweigh any positives, including:

• Shipping/insurance costs, as already pointed out,
• Potential damage from shipping or mishandling/user error,
• Insufficient up front fees (i.e., security deposit) to inhibit scamming or theft by bad actors,
• People keeping the item beyond the agreed-on time interval, and
• Capital invested and tied up in gear, that could otherwise generate income through much less risky investments,
• Gear that sits around generating no income because few want to pay to audition, and
• The gear continues to depreciate in value.

It seems a better option is to simply sell stuff you are not using.  If you miss it, then buy another one of the same thing.  Many of us have done that, at least once.

IMO the juice would not be worth the squeeze.  Would you “vet” the potential renters?  If yes how?  Your high value equipment could end up in the hands of a neophyte interested in maxing out the volume for house shaking parties. But that is just one risk. I would not recommend it in any case.