Borrowing equipment from dealers

A good dealer is hard to find but they are there and they are worth searching out because they will save you all kinds of headaches in audio/stereo listening.

I don’t deal with dealers, prefer used equipment, never auditioned anything but cables (long time ago) , but buying them from dealers was not so smart move as the same used cables online are 70% cheaper. I don’t want to borrow anything from dealers if I have no intention to buy from them. Local dealers in my country are useless, prices always much higher than online import including shipping. I feel sorry for dealers, because people can use them for audition and buy elsewhere.

Anyway, I’m happy to bring my stuff (amps, phono stages, cartridges, cables) to my local friends for a demo, it’s fun!

P.S. Yet another Tannoy user. 

My dealer would call me on the phone when he got some new item or line in the store and ask if I’d like to come in and listen to it or take it home to listen to in my system for the weekend. Of course this offer wasn't made to all his customers, but there were many besides myself. We valued each other’s opinion and for him there was always the chance that I might like it enough to buy it. For that and other reasons, he’s still in business and thriving. I find establishing a good relationship with a good dealer to be invaluable.

I know several local dealerships in my area that allow customers to take home gear to audition.  I don't know if they allow anyone to borrow stuff, but, they certainly allow it for good regular customers.  I personally would not ask to do a home audition of delicate gear that is prone to being damaged, like turntables and large speaker systems.  I know a dealer who has allowed people to take home phono cartridges to audition, including some crazy expensive cartridges that I am afraid to even touch.

If you are a good customer, dealers will go to quite extreme measures to accommodate requests.  I once had an interest in a new linestage.  A local dealer carried three lines that I had an interest in, but, he had none of the flagship models of those lines.  On a handshake deal, he offered to buy all three flagship models if I promised to buy one of them.  I took home the first model he got in, liked it, and purchased it without having him get in the other two.  

I would love to see the manufacturers serve the function of providing the in home demo. I realize that PS Audio does some form of this, but they also ended their dealer network. I'm thinking of a hybrid model.  A consumer could request an in home demo of a preamp or streamer for example from a set of demo equipment the manufacturer maintains for consumer trials. The consumer would secure the equipment with a credit card and pay return shipping. The factory would not sell direct, so the consumer would have to buy from a dealer so the dealers do not get cut out of the purchase and/or trade in. I can't imagine being a designer/manufacturer and NOT having a way to get my gear listened to! Or maybe worse, have a dealer sell agaist my products because they have a better deal or incentive to reach with my competitor. 
I recently went through trying to hear a VTL 6.5 preamp, and it occurred to me during that process that at VTL you have this couple dedicating their professional lives to their designs and it was so hard for them to get their products heard! I can think of lots of "yeah buts" about this idea, but I think the brands that figure out an in home loaner program could  really accelerate. Especially as the prices of single components keep going up and up.