How to get a Home Demo

Janomin

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Bit of an odd one. As I've said in a few posts now I'm looking at upgrading my speakers, have been around to a few shops and been offered demo's, which is all well and good, however I'm not sure I want to part with most of £2k on speakers I have not heard in what would be the actual system and room. My concern is that while I am fairly sure I will be impressed with the speakers, will they actually give me enough of an improvement over what I've currently got, where they are actually going to be used. If I give an example, my Dad's current speakers, Epos ES14's, sound worse than my Mission M71's.

If I'm going to change the speakers, I intend to make absolutely sure these will be the correct speakers for the next 10 or so years, and should be a perfect match for my received, a Yammy RX-V3900. They also need to be good in potentially difficult positions, close to a wall, possibly on wall mounts, or if I can create some space, standmounted, or at least on an AV rack further from a wall, at most about a foot. From reading up and different recommendations, I'm currently looking at the following -

B&W CM5
Monitor Audio GX50/100
Kef R300
PMC Twenty.21

Still umming and ahhing over the XTZ's, as I know I can home demo these which is a big plus point, but I'm not 100% convinced the 95.24 are the same level as the speakers above.

So around the £1000 mark for two standmount/bookshelf type speakers, plus the matching centre. Initially I plan on having a demo in store, and once decided on a set, I would like to be able to have a home demo or trial just to make sure this is money well spent - however, I have no idea how to go about arranging this, or if this is something the shop would agree with? Is it just a case of asking and seeing what they say or am I going to be wasting my time?
 
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If you've got a local dealer then go in and have a demo of the speakers as you've already suggested.

I would then probably pick the two that impress the most instore then ask if you could have them on a home demo for a week to see how you get on,

This isn't unusual for people to do. Most stores will just take your card details, just in case you damage them or don't return them. Have a week with them and see how you get on if your not quite sure then try your second favourite.

Only do this if you are 100% intent on using the dealer and your pretty sure you want to upgrade your speakers as I'm sure you can imagine dealers have to do a fair amount of work to sell a set of speakers. In most cases you'd only test drive a new £30k car for an hour before deciding to buy it!!
 
Will only be going ahead with this, even the instore demo point, when I have the cash together and am 100% sure that a speaker upgrade is the way to go. While I am 100% sure my system is being held back by the speakers, what I'm not sure about is the improvement I'll be getting for the outlay. The Missions for example at new were about £150 a pair. The Epos were £1000. Now this could obviously be a case for the Missions being perfectly matched to a Yamaha amp, or my ears not being good enough to pick up on a difference, or even the sonics in the room being pretty poor, but considering the difference in price, you would expect a marked improvement in sound, and it just isn't there.

Part of me is seriously hoping to be blown away though, especially with the more I hear about the Kef's and the PMC's, which undoubtedly are a massive improvement for me, I really can't see how I would not hear a marked improvement.
 
Going off on a bit of a tangent, having the demo on monday next week and the dealer has also recommended a listen to the ProAc Tablette Anniversary, which from what I can see seem great, but I'm having trouble finding if there is a matching centre speakers. Does anyone know if there is one?
 
I will add one additional note, though it should go without saying.

If you take speakers home for a demo, you must be sincere about buying them. It would be unethical to simply go from dealer to dealer borrowing speakers because you are too cheap to actually buy any. I'm not referring to you, but just to the situation in general.

Next, if you take speakers home for a demo, you have a responsibility to take care of the speakers, and to be responsible for any damage you cause. The speakers need to be returned in 100% resell-able condition. The shipping box should not be shredded or damage, the cabinets should not be scratched, all secondary components and documentation must be there and in good shape, and the grills or the grill pins should not be damage. This is especially true of new speakers.

If you are demoing speakers off the showroom floor, then you and the seller need to closely inspect the speakers and note, literally write down, any damage to them or the shipping containers before you take them. Even very fine scratches can make a difference when it comes time to return them.

This should be obvious, yet, I don't know how many people I've seen who give no thought to things like this. Instead of carefully opening the boxes, they just rip them open; documentation and misc part scattered across the room. The dealer is doing you an extreme courtesy, and it is only fair that you return that courtesy.

Again, this is not an accusation, simply a reminder to give the dealer and the product some consideration and care.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Wouldn't dream of it, for example my 12-13 year old M71's dont have a single mark on them, in fact none of my speakers do. I don't intend to use them in my current wall mounts and will be handling these in cotton wool, if it gets to the stage where I take them home for a few days. A blatant disregard for other peoples property really gets my goat (car parks, is it really that hard to open car doors without taking a chunk from mine, grrr!).

I haven't had a proper demo for a good 6 years now too, so I am genuinely excited by the prospect. Will be doing my best to give the speakers a thorough work out during the store demo to make sure I'm not wasting the dealers time, working through a bit of a demo list now.
 
>>Still umming and ahhing over the XTZ's, as I know I can home demo these which is a big plus point, but I'm not 100% convinced the 95.24 are the same level as the speakers above.

Did you mean XTZ 99.26 MK II here? 95.24 is 345 GBP and I don't think its fair to compare them with speakers costing 1000 and above. I am considering some of the choices you have mentioned as well including the 99.26 XTZ although not immediately. So keep me updated on which way you proceed.

I am planning to attend the Bristol Show this time as that would be a good time to listen to most of these speakers :clap:

Jai
 
My local shop offers a 7 day return on all products if your not completely happy, and as long as it's in pristine condition still. It was good to know this as I bought a Marantz PM6004 amp recently, and wasn't sure how it was going to sound with my current speakers (they don't stock KEF).

Needless to say, the amp is very good with the KEF speakers, and isn't going anywhere!!!
 
>>Still umming and ahhing over the XTZ's, as I know I can home demo these which is a big plus point, but I'm not 100% convinced the 95.24 are the same level as the speakers above.

Did you mean XTZ 99.26 MK II here? 95.24 is 345 GBP and I don't think its fair to compare them with speakers costing 1000 and above. I am considering some of the choices you have mentioned as well including the 99.26 XTZ although not immediately. So keep me updated on which way you proceed.

I am planning to attend the Bristol Show this time as that would be a good time to listen to most of these speakers :clap:

Jai

No, i decided against the 95.24 XTZ's due to the weight of them, I only have space for standmount/wallmountable speakers. While the home demo is a plus, it was still going to cost a fair amount on shipping, and I don't think a £345 speaker will be much of an improvement over what I have.

Anyone have any ideas on the matching center for the ProAc Tablette Anniversary's? The Studio Centre Channel seems to be the only option, but can't see if it matches the Tablette's.
 
My local shop offers a 7 day return on all products if your not completely happy, and as long as it's in pristine condition still. It was good to know this as I bought a Marantz PM6004 amp recently, and wasn't sure how it was going to sound with my current speakers (they don't stock KEF).

Needless to say, the amp is very good with the KEF speakers, and isn't going anywhere!!!


wow that's good service,makes me feel guilty now for demanding any new speakers I buy are unopenned boxes.

on a side note,always wondered how shops get demo speakers? are they given a demo set from the speaker company or do they just order in what ever someone wants to demo and hope they buy them or if they don't buy just keep them in stock for someone else to buy? either way it doen't sound a cheap process!
 
wow that's good service,makes me feel guilty now for demanding any new speakers I buy are unopenned boxes.

I was impressed with this too........it was mentioned by the shop that on the whole they don't get many returns due to this policy, as they do have a demo room facility too.....
 
snig300 said:
on a side note,always wondered how shops get demo speakers? are they given a demo set from the speaker company or do they just order in what ever someone wants to demo and hope they buy them or if they don't buy just keep them in stock for someone else to buy? either way it doen't sound a cheap process!

They have to buy whatever they feel would be the most suitable demo stock and use that to sell whatever finishes the customer wishes to purchase. As an example, where I work we have the entire KEF Q series on demonstration and we have a good mix of the available finishes on several models in the range.
 
The Q series selling well still? Or they slowing down since the introduction of the R series?
 
They have to buy whatever they feel would be the most suitable demo stock and use that to sell whatever finishes the customer wishes to purchase. As an example, where I work we have the entire KEF Q series on demonstration and we have a good mix of the available finishes on several models in the range.


right so it's a case of ringing around and hoping their have a demo set of what ever your looking for,it was just reading on here I was thinking they would get in whatever was asked to be demoed,was thinking that would be a bit unworkable,cheers.
 
right so it's a case of ringing around and hoping their have a demo set of what ever your looking for

Yes, you should find it pretty easy to get a demo of what you want to listen to as most dealers who carry a particular range of speakers will have all if not most of that range available for demonstration.
 

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