Is this rude?

When in doubt, put yourself in the other person's shoes. If YOU were the dealer and had someone intentionally wasting your time, how would you feel about it? At the very least, you should at least be up-front and OFFER to pay this dealer for the SERVICE of allowing you to audition. Even if it's only $10 or $20, you're at least showing good faith. In all likelihood, the dealer will:

a) kick your butt out on the spot
b) Say it's "no problem", refuse to take your money, and hope they can start a RELATIONSHIP with you so you may consider purchasing other products from them...

Just my humble opinion...

Eddaytona and Vinylphile:

Thank you for your clarifications and thoughtful posts.

Shalom.

I have a friend who is a BAT dealer. I bought a used 75' at this site. I made up for indiscretion by purchasing an Aesthetix Calypso and receiving $900 off the list price(I did'nt even know that he carried the line!). Support your local dealer...unless they're snobbish.

I definitely agree with the people who have suggested that you just tell the dealer what your budget is, what speakers you're looking at, and ask them if they know of customers selling them or if they have a demo. Ask if the have a pre-configured system setup you could listen to at a low traffic time. All great suggestions.
Here are some things I've seen:
- Half the time I am the only person at a specialty store. I usually take lunch at an odd time (3pm for example) and I'm the ONLY person there. If you go to tweeter that's different but smaller shops only have a couple of sales people and sometimes only 1 customer in at those odd hours.
- I often don't know what I want to buy. I say Im looking for speakers within a wide range - say 1K to 2.5K. The salesperson will latch on to 2.5K. but when I show more interest in a 1.2K speaker, he'll show me my choices there.
- I usally look at 3-4 dealers. That means that 2-3 of them got ZERO business from me (that day). Did I waste their time? Granted I wasnt planning to blow them off, but hey, bottom line, no sale. Your situation is different, but chances are if you are straight with them and they are half way decent people and businessmen (anyone ever get a female audio salesperson?) they will show you something that you want to buy from them, be it a demo or a trade in. Theres money to be made in used sales too.

Be upfront...like others have suggested...indicate your budget...and see what the local dealer has to offer...most local hi-end shops have many used/consignment items...but you often have to ask...they are usually stored out of sight...thanks...