HiFi stores that rent for in home trials… Are there any?

[Alexandre]

Hi there,

I've been wondering about this, I'm in San Francisco and I doesn't seem to me that the HiFi stores around here allow you to try things at home. I've been wondering if there are places that will let you do that, either for free (I keep reading about that on forums but have yet to see that IRL), or for $$$. I'd love to be able to rent those fancy new speakers I've been eyeing before buying them, even if I spend 5//10% of the purchase price extra for a week or two in home.

Any thoughts or experience with that kind of thing? Maybe I should just open my own store!

Cheers,
Alex.

 

[lovinthehd]

There are several internet direct speaker/sub sellers allowing for in-home trials (altho you may be on hook for return shipping with some), but renting I never ran into nor would that probably be of much interest to a shop owner (aside from those renting all sorts of appliances and furniture perhaps).

I lived in SF for quite a while and the shop I used mostly back in the 80s/early 90s was very accommodating; if I took something home and didn't like it, I don't think they would have had an issue taking it back (but that particular store I'm thinking of is long gone), but can't think of anything I wanted to take back, usually spent plenty of time researching/hanging out in the store before buying....

Maybe someone with more recent experience in the area can tune in and give you some shops to visit....

 

[slipperybidness]

For a local B&M, you probably are going to have to spend some time in there and get to know them first. Likely gonna have to be a long-time customer first too.

There may be B&Ms that will have a fairly liberal return policy should you decide to make a return. Basically, store credit for the entire purchase if you take it home and it doesn't work out for some reason.

The local store also sells on consignment. They will give you a chance to listen in the store for consignment items, and 24hr returns.

Not sure if Guitar Center may have some rentals, but of course that would be for pro-level gear.

 

[panteragstk]

For a local B&M, you probably are going to have to spend some time in there and get to know them first. Likely gonna have to be a long-time customer first too.

There may be B&Ms that will have a fairly liberal return policy should you decide to make a return. Basically, store credit for the entire purchase if you take it home and it doesn't work out for some reason.

The local store also sells on consignment. They will give you a chance to listen in the store for consignment items, and 24hr returns.

Not sure if Guitar Center may have some rentals, but of course that would be for pro-level gear.

When I worked for Guitar Center they did not do rentals. People asked all the time. I will say that even though they don't do rentals, they know who does.

However, all the Hi-fi shops I've been to usually have a decent return policy and never mind people hanging out listening to stuff. They usually are eager to talk audio with folks for a long time. It will vary among shops, but most of the locally owned ones are pretty cool.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

The local B & M may have a demo room with a limited selection of gear they are pushing that week. Some mail-order dealers may have in-home trials but you could get stuck with a re-stocking fee if you don't like the item.

 

[j_garcia]

Some of the bigger name shops I used to deal with had no problem lending me a floor demo pair of speakers for a week. They knew I would end up buying something from them and I never damaged any of their gear. With fewer shops around that may not happen in general, plus I had also been a customer of theirs for many years.

 

[Alexandre]

Interesting responses, thank you all!

I agree that the staff at some (most?) of the shops I've gone to in SF have been happy to talk a lot and sample things in the store but when it comes to trying things out at home, not so much. I even bought an Arcam receiver that exhibited issues with HDMI – I've actually had 2 separate arcam receivers that did the same thing: they'd lose the audio from the Apple TV randomly from time to time – and wasn't able to get anything other than store credit for it and even that, with a restocking fee which more than a little annoying… To be fair to the store owner, we did test the receiver in the store for a long time, the owner even left it running with my Apple TV for a full day and didn't notice the issue, but once I got the receiver home, I did experience the issue…

I wonder if the liability on high end audio equipment is just too high to rent things out. I imagine that owners have done the math on this sort of thing and figured it's too different a business to be worth it. I just kinda wish I could find a store when I could rent the fancy hifi speakers for a week or two before deciding to buy.

Cheers!

 

[j_garcia]

Check out Music Lovers in Berkely. I never borrowed anything from them, but great shop. The shop I borrowed gear from is down here in Saratoga, but they've become "appointment only", effectively not open to the public anymore.

 

[sholling]

Being offered an in-home speaker trial was pretty common in 1970s and early 1980s Southern California high-end stores. I never took them up on their offers so I couldn't tell you how it worked.