Have you ever wondered why speaker manufactures do not consign speakers to dealers?

One often has to travel to be able to experience expensive boutique products. Nothing special about home audio there. It goes with the turf. These days smart vendors focus on facilitating in-home demos or audition periods. Always better to hear thing s in your own room if really serious about something.   

Having said that, I always try to check out B&B audio shops that sell things I might be interested in when I travel, but I generally don’t travel more than 60 miles or so just to audition something. I live only 60 miles or so from DC metro area so there are multiple shops not too far away when needed. Not all have that luxury though I am sure.

My experience in Colorado has been most of the dealers here work out of their homes with a shoe string budget.  As a result, they will often only carry the lower cost speaker models.  For example, I went to a dealer who carries both Monitor Audio and Paradigm speakers.  I wanted to compare the Paradigm Prestige 85F towers to their 95F towers and compare both of these to the Monitor Audio Silver 8 and Silver 10 towers.  The only speakers they had on their floor to demo were a pair of the Monitor Audio Silver 8's and a pair of the Paradigm Prestige 85F towers.  I felt the dealer assumed their customers would not spend the extra money on the larger more expensive speaker models.  Based on this scenario, how is it possible for Monitor Audio to sell their Monitor Audio Silver 10 and Gold series speakers or Paradigm to sell their larger Prestige speakers and Persona speakers if a customer is not able to listen to them?

I am not a big fan of Best Buy.  However, they do have multiple levels of speaker models to listen to.  They have it set up so you can listen to a pair of Bowers & Wilkins and by pressing a button you can listen to a pair of Martin Logan Motion 60's within seconds to compare.  They also have that same setup to compare amplifiers and receivers.

I attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival last October and realized the value of spending a few days listening to higher end gear.  It was also very helpful to talk to people attending the show to ask their opinions about certain manufacturers.

This is quite a fascinating hobby and I am just getting started.  What amazes me is how few of us are out there.  Most of the public has never heard a high end 2 channel system and as a result they do not know what they are missing by not having a music listening room to come home to.  I attend open houses in our neighborhood and I have yet to find a home with even two speakers in either their family room or living room.  

Stereo systems are about as popular in America as Station Wagons.

Yes, stereos are so 1950s.....

Though, every time I turn mine on I think...how can anyone live without one of these?