I find it difficult to get demos really, this I put down to two reasons.
One is that I am quite young and they probably know I'm not going to come in and spend £500+ on a single component (because I simply can't afford to), and I almost get the impression that until I get my wallet out and put the cash down on the counter that they can't really be bothered to go out of their way to help me (especially true of superfi in wolverhampton). It seems to me that if I'm only interested in spending less than £200 on a cd player, then they just can't be bothered to set up a demo for me
The other reason is the hifi dealers in Wolverhampton are really limited and I find it hard to travel, we have Superfi who seemingly can't be bothered to set up a demo for me unless I'm buying a whole system, and Sevenoaks, who are actually very helpful but don't stock much that I can afford (saying that, the staff there are very helpful, they don't seem to have the same attitude of superfi that because I'm not spending megabucks its not worth their time, which is odd given that sevenoaks is a reseller of more higher end gear than superfi...).
Anyway, things I've bought....
Marantz PM7000 amp - Bought blind, with almost no research into alternatives since I got it into my head that I wanted marantz. I do like it though
Marantz CD4000 cdp - Bought blind, again with little research, I just wanted a cheap cd player that would match the amp at the time, and this fitted the bill even if it is a warmed over philips. Not my best buy though...should've got a CD6000 OSE or something.
Jamo D-165 speakers - Demo'd them off a Sony midi system, god those things were crude (compared to what I have now), but bloody loud and a lot of bass....
B&W 602 S1 speakers - Bought s/h of Isaac, I did demo these but having them run off a totally different combination of cdp/amp made it only so useful vs a home demo with your existing kit, but I could tell they were far better speakers anyway
M-Audio superdac - Bought blind, but with lots of recommendations and I can always ebay it if I don't think its worth it when it arrives.
Cables I just bought blind, never spent enough on them to make me think 'hmm I need to check how this sounds first'. So far my experience with interconnects has shown differences to be relatively subtle when you compare against different speakers, though I haven't ventured out of the budget end yet
