Audiophile dealers talk to much

In the UK, from 1984, there was an organisation called BADA - British Audi-Visual Dealers Association. One of the qualifying requirements to becoming a BADA authorised dealer, was to have a single (pair!) speaker demonstration room and then you were given a nice sticker. I can't answer for all the dealers, but I know of several who optimised, and marked the best position for all of the speakers they stocked. If you thought the equipment good enough to stock, you wanted it performing as it should.

Even though I had sold and managed Hi-Fi shops for few years, like many other shop owners, managers and salesmen, I went on the two day BADA Salesman course. I'm not sure if this made Audiophile dealers talk less, or more, but certainly you were told the importance of acknowledging everyone who entered the premises.

Perhaps I am lucky, but shops that I have spent time in recently, still work to very high standards and have single speaker demonstration rooms.

The less specialist shop where I bought my first "proper" amp and speakers, a NAD 3020B and KEF Coda IIs, back in 1979, had banks of speakers connected via a comparator and loads of bell wire: in simple terms, this was a complete waste of time.