Also consider the dealers dilemma.Besides knowing that even the best customers will shop price as well as selection, he is competing in both the real and virtual sales world.He accepts this and keeps the store open. So maybe he selects three speaker brands four at the most. He does not have unlimited room and the room he has can properly place maybe 2 pair of speakers properly.Faced with three brands he would like to display three models in each line to hit popular price points. Also as an attraction and possible sale 1-2 pair of top line models. Right you are if you are spending 5k-20k or more on a pair you would like to hear them.The dealer demos from stock. If he can place say 2 pair of 15k-20k he is looking at a bit of a money in demo. When the year ends those demos no longer bring the same retail and often are sold at deep discount. This l is tough for the small or moderate location. You may think there is big profit but remember all the hours those sales guys are sitting waiting for you to come in, they get paid and the lights stay on. Store owners accept all this.There is no good solution. I have been there on both sides. Customer comes in you judge him a sale not a looker. Make an appointment and you set up his requested speakers best you can. He listens and goes away. You repack 20k-30k of goods and chalk it up to you did your best. When I was in the sales side we tried to resolve some of this by offering in home demo. With the condition that if the customer did not like it he would not get a refund but credit. This qualified the customer as real and they got what sounded best to them. A compromise for sure.
Have you ever wondered why speaker manufactures do not consign speakers to dealers?
How many of you have wanted to hear a pair of speakers and the dealer only has a pair of their low end speakers to listen to? I would say in most cases, dealers in Colorado have limited availability of speakers to listen to on their floor. How then is it possible to purchase a speaker without listening to it first? You would think speaker manufactures would want to sell their higher end speakers and consign at least three speaker models to dealers so they could have them available for their customers to listen to.