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Fifty to one hundred miles. I live near Minneapolis so I'm fortunate in having several stores with different brands to choose from.

I'd walk a mile to smoke a Steelhead . . . .

Living in Denver, we've got a lot locally. But I did once drive through a blistering snowstorm to listen to a pair of JBL 4315 studio monitors while in college in the seventies. I bought them and they reigned for many years until I discovered dipoles.

Living on the central coast of California, I have traveled north and south to check out gear, in fact I recently listened to a pair of Dynaudio Temptations on some Krell Gear in San Francisco (by the way, the better shop I visited was Performance Audio on California street, I believe). And I will never forget the time when I went down to the LA area to hear Richard Vandersteen speak and was able to listen to his wonderful Model 5. Even though I work at a hi-fi shop, I love checking out any town's local audio shops and listening to gear. By the way if you are in the San Luis Obispo area, check out Audio Ecstasy.

Last month I heard the Indianapolis Symphony on a Friday night and the San Francisco Symphony on the following night. Does this count for auditioning music? With terrorists trying to hijack or blow me up, the joy of going through security screening, wage concessions, management raiding pension funds, hearing music on the road is the only good thing left about being an airline pilot. Sad to say. If it wasn't for music I'd be a 100% cynical bastard.

I drove a little over 150 miles to demo the equipment I wound up purchasing. Problems? Installation is completely up to the purchaser, and returns/exchanges can get a little tricky. Of course, sometimes it's the only way to hear the gear.

I really haven't traveled to audition gear, because Minneapolis is far from just about everywhere. I'm limited to what my local dealer has or if I want to risk it, mail order.

Wrong question. Try asking how far I'll go to hear good music. I remember several weekend long driving trips to get to the venue—even as a child travelling with my parents. It's still the milk that's important, not what cow it came from.

Being in a small southwest desert town, I have to drive to Tucson to audition anything noteworthy.

One of the most interesting audition experiences I ever had was when a local dealer delivered, set up, and spent the evening with me auditioning a pair of PSB Stratus Goldis in my listening room. Traveling distance: 0 miles!

I went from Los Angeles to Toyko Japan to hear the Harbeth Loudspeaker. (I also was there to meet my wife's familly!)

Arcam CD72T. I wanted to hear a CD player that could make my California Audio Labs pale in comparison. Thank you Norvelle Wathen of Musical Images of Kentucky. It's unbelievable to meet a man driven by sound quality not price! Worth the drive!

Denon Direct Drive Turntable - Grace Tonearm - Denon Moving Coil Cartridge - Verion Step Up Transformer - All of this when I had more time and money than I knew what to do with it. Now I rock with a $29.00 portable cd player - $5.00 headphones - powered by a wall wart!

It was to Appleton & Green Bay, WI to hear Thiel CS-1.5 and Krell integrated amp. I did not purchase, although I liked what I heard. It was too far for dealer support, it was my first "high end" audio purchase and I was a chicken! I stayed local and spent more on speakers and less on amp and have been very happy. No regrets at all.

I flew from Albuquerque to Seattle to audition a Monitor Audio speaker system—well, sort of. I was on a business trip to Seattle, and I visited an A/V store one free afternoon while I was there.

Trip was to hear the early Acoustat X & it was worth it!

I don

the trip was to audition speakers.

Naim CD Player

When I was auditioning speakers, I went to Chicago from St. Louis to hear things that were on my list. I also listened in New York, but was there for other reasons anyway. I actually ended up buying here (Hales, which still sound great even though the company folded do to silly business practices).

Spica Angelus Speakers

From southwest Missouri to central Illinois (about 350 miles) to hear a pair of Klipschorns. Actually, I was on the way to Chicago for other reasons, when we stopped in Springfield, IL for the night, and just happened to see a small A/V store with a Klipsch sign in the window. So I just strolled in to check it out, and WOW! There they were! A beautiful pair of oak K-horns. After some listening to Fleetwood Mac and Nancy Griffith, we made the deal, and as I had no way to get those behemoths home, I returned the next week with trailer in tow and hauled'em back home to Nevada, MO.

I had to find a Vandersteen dealer...just had to hear what the hype was about with all the rave reviews here at Stereophile. A few years later I ended up auditioning some Maggies. I liked them a whole lot better and perhaps someday will buy a set. It helps a ton to have some familiar music along so you can know if the speakers really do sound good or not!

Vintage Thorens turntable on sale at a dealer in Seattle (I'm in Oregon) I wanted to make sure the platter was straight and motor spindle was in good condition (they get knocked around over the years if transported with the platter attached to the body...

560 miles (in 1996) From Kansas City to Dallas TX. to audition, and pruchase an analog front end. Sota Shapphire TT, ET 2.5 Tone Arm, and a Benz Glider Cartridge. Well worth the trip.

Mexico City to Fort Collins Colorado (Rick Duplisea of Audio Alternative) all in aid of listening to the little Gallo softball size speakers. And the result was that I bought 5 of them plus stands. The bonus was that they were small enough to take on the plane with me. They are now the heart of my home theatre system. Rick also managed to convince me into purchasing a used Rega turntable which has led to a 20% listening time investment in vinyl. My home base is Vancouver BC which has a fairly good collection of equipment but I do remember having to drive to Seattle in order to buy a Phase Linear 4000 preamp. I won't say how many years ago that was but the unit was just introduced when I bought it... Some people like to see museums etc when they travel, I usually search out the hifi shops either through Stereophile advertisements or just the local yellow pages. God what a habit

From Vancouver, WA to London, UK to evaluate the SME 20/SME v combination - I bought them!

Magnaplanars. That said, when I travel I stop at all the high end stores to check out whats new, though I may not do an auditioning session. Many of my purchases have been happenstance targets of opportunity.

I've lived in cities like Tucson and Shreveport that were completely high-end free. I'm now back in my hometown of Detroit which, despite over 3 million people, is hardly better off. I've traveled to NYC (such obnoxious dealers!), Chicago and San Francisco for auditions, but mostly in conjunction with other business or personal travel. Result: I'll mail order electronics on trial for auditioning in my own system, and travel to hear speakers. Analog playback is essentially un-auditionable -- there's simply no way for a consumer to legitimately compare any one item when heard in otherwise unfamiliar analog rigs. Stereophile's reasonable dictum -- "list for yourself!" -- is becoming unrealizeable for the average joe.

I have never gone out of the Detroit metropolitan area for the purpose of auditioning products. However, when visiting cities that have high-end audio stores, I always make it a point (if I have any free time) to stop by and audition products not available locally.