In my area there are still many mortar and brick hifi stores. Some have nice listening rooms, which I honestly find a prerequisite. Others don’t even have treated rooms, can only demo in a small room.. pretty useless to demo big speakers imho. and I can’t imagine them selling many speakers because the room sounds awfull.
Few days ago I got the chance to demo active ATC50’s. Room was not treated. Size around 3x7 metres. Speakers were place 0.3 metres from sidewalls and as you can imagine the bass got boomy really fast. Funny thing was that the owner said that’s what it’s supposed to be like. I kindly disagreed with him, thinking by myself what a waste of my time it was but yeah.. beyond me that dealers show their stuff in these kind of circumstances.
None the less a demo is better than no demo, even if it’s in bad room.
Hate to say this but I disagree, you might be able to eliminate some if they're particulary sharp or something that really stands out you don't like, but one of the biggest influences on overall sound is the room and hence why some people spend as much .... if not more on room treatment.
I've been and demo'd speakers that came across bordering on boomy in the demo room. As I'd driven there thought I'd take them home and try then anyway, in my room the kick drum sounded amazing, it was like you were right next to it, but the range between that and the mids was totally lacking.
I also think "fatigue" can set in which you'll only notice after a while, I bought a pair of ex demo speakers and it was 2 months later I sold them as I realised a long listening session with female vocals got to the stage you just didn't want to listen anymore.
If people can make an accurate assesment after a 30 mimute trial in a treated demo room and be 100% happy with them 2 weeks after they've got them home, I take my hat off to them but personally I like a longer home trial.
Not a crticism of anybody else's thoughts, just my own personal thoughts / experience.