Borrowing equipment from dealers

I know several local dealerships in my area that allow customers to take home gear to audition.  I don't know if they allow anyone to borrow stuff, but, they certainly allow it for good regular customers.  I personally would not ask to do a home audition of delicate gear that is prone to being damaged, like turntables and large speaker systems.  I know a dealer who has allowed people to take home phono cartridges to audition, including some crazy expensive cartridges that I am afraid to even touch.

If you are a good customer, dealers will go to quite extreme measures to accommodate requests.  I once had an interest in a new linestage.  A local dealer carried three lines that I had an interest in, but, he had none of the flagship models of those lines.  On a handshake deal, he offered to buy all three flagship models if I promised to buy one of them.  I took home the first model he got in, liked it, and purchased it without having him get in the other two.  

By being a loyal customer, I not only have been able to audition gear in my home, I have gotten free minor repairs, including free parts, from a local dealership. 

The relationship is mutual--I once lent my amplifier to the dealer who wanted to use it in an audio show.  The dealer builds, or has a special builder in Italy build, amps, preamps, linestages, and DACs.  This particular amp was built in Italy to be a replica of a Western Electric 133 amp (including vintage parts).  A visitor to the show came in, looked at the amp and asked how much it cost; the dealer quoted a price, sort of off the top of his head, of $22k.  The visitor looked a bit surprised and replied something like "really? I'm looking at twenty thousand in parts." (prices were based on original acquisition cost of parts, not the current value).