wjm@whuxk.UUCP (12/17/83)
Several audio companies have recommended that their equipment be presented in demo rooms that only contain one set of speakers. Certainly this is more like the home environment where you will be listening to the equipment, and the presence of "dead" speakers in the room will affect the sound (if they did not, it would make little sense for some speaker designers to use passive radiators (units with cones like woofers but without voice coils or any electrical connections). For that matter, anything in the listening room will affect the sound. However, it is impractical for most audio dealers to have only one set of speakers in a room, due to the large number of models that most dealers carry (to please their customers). While a dealer could bring in a set at a time, this would slow things down considerably when you want to audition several pairs (or are waiting behind someone who wants to audition several pairs). One reasonable alternative is to arrange for a trial in your own listening room. Many dealers will provide a 7 day trial period, during which they will exchange equipement that you find unsatisfactory so that you can make the final evaluation of this equipment in the room where you will be doing the listening. Bill Mitchell (whuxk!wjm)