Maybe I am in a minority here but I insist a Home Demo is the only way.
You may still not buy the 'best' you can for the money but you are minimising the chances of going wrong.
You do test drive the car before you buy???I cant really answer Mr Muralis comment on arranged marriages!!
Its not that i walk in to a dealership & tell him to send me say 5 pairs of speakers!!!!! I go there are listen to a few on my shortlist. Then try & narrow it down. Finally when I am left with what I think is the best option for me I request for that to be sent home. If i damage it , I buy it!!! As i said earlier one can be decent by offering to get it collected & dropped off at ones own cost.
Your room is 50 % of the battle. Good equipment is good equipment agreed, but just maybe something else in that bracket CAN sound better with the rest of your chain in YOUR ROOM so why not???
In the west you can almost always try things for a longer period (after paying for it in full) which I think is the best way and I would be happy to pay for it here too if that makes the vendor comfortable (or as Neo says that there may be a lack of trust and him having my money takes out the trust factor!!) Dont like it for whatever reason, return it & get back your money.
Anyway most vendors in bbay offer this service, at least the ones I am in touch with surely do. In fact I know of some dealers / distributors who are not from bbay who send stuff to audition at their cost. Many names come to my mind & some are even here on the forum but its best to keep this general. Very recently a particular power conditioner was being highly recommended by TAS, stereophile & tone. Now this conditioner is not distributed in bbay & costs about 3L. We (four of us in total) requested the distri(first time I spoke to the man ) to send us one unit to audition which he did & now he has made 5 sales. When one hears what a product can do for you, how much it lifts the performance of your rig one is a happy buyer.
Rgds
Just out of curiosity, can you please name at least a single item you had bought only after doing a "home demo"? Car, Fridge, washing machine, TV, laptop, watch, furniture, trousers, shirts, shoes..., even underwears??? If there is at least one, I support your stand, if not, why the exception for audio equipment???
Hope you have not forgotten that the minute an equipment is taken out of its original packing and used for a demo, either at home or at the shop, it has lost at least 20-30% of its value and becomes a "demo" equipment. The best dealers I have seen (none in India) keep several demo items to show the public, and though they have lost their "original" value, the are compensated by the manufacturers with discounts for maintaining the high inventory. My limited experience with Indian dealers is that most of them ask for 100% advance payment for placing the order and getting the equipment for you!!! I had bought all my expensive equipment from abroad only, at least having listended to them before writing the cheque, and will certainly continue to do so unless changes are seen "here". Of course, I still don't go for the home-demo requirement, but need to hear it somewhere.
Back to the silent days,
cheers.
murali