@hleeid You have done well to adopt the method of receiving a Home Demo' of items if interest.
This in itself will prove to be very beneficial in your learning the Sonic Signature and Performance on offer from a certain Topology used within a Certain Design within a Certain Price range. I say this, as my experiences have shown on occasions, where I have been in the Company of quite a few Phonostages, that the Sonic Signatures is perceivable, and it is reasonably easy to detect when a Topology for a schematic is a similar arrangement and a design that is not too far adrift from others being used at the time. It is not usual for a certain design, and topology to be offered within a certain price range that are closely related in their asking prices. There comes a point when a particular design, one that is not the 'off the shelf' commonly found designs, is able to show a clear difference between other Phons', especially for the better.
Do set yourself up for a success in preparation for these demos at home and allow the items to have a pre-warm.
Phonostages all seem to benefit from a period of warming. If the Models to be tried are quite new, they will certainly benefit from a run time and possibly many more than is able to be used during your demo' period.
When I have home trialled Phon's in the Past, to save on the Stylus Life, I have used a CDP with a Hagerman Inverted / Reverse RIAA between the CDP and Phonostage.
This is left on Repeat Play in earshot for multiple hours at a time, it soon becomes apparent the Phonostage has made a change and the impression being made is very different for the previous in front of the speaker visits to assess the presentation.
There comes a point the Phonostage is begging to be used with the LP Source, as it just sounds so ready for the occasion.