I had my car serviced today and had time to waste, so booked an appointment with local dealer to listen to the Selekt DSM edition hub dual mono organic. I explained my next system could be the Linn with active Atc Scm 50, or Naim300 series. He was, shall we say, dismissive of Naim saying that the sound comes from in front rather than above and behind, saying quite a few Naimees ended up with hearing issues from loud listening. He also didn’t recommend active. The demo used a high end Vitus integrated amp and Audiovector R6 from memory. Naturally it sounded fantastic but should do at those prices!. I was surprised that he didn’t recommend the Linn integrated preamp because it is digital. I said his discussion had been “very educational”!
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Maybe try another dealer?
Where are you?
Tony
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that is funny though!
they are probably listening loud cos Naim can play rock music without it sounding mundane and boring - unlike modern Linn equipment!
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I think I’d prefer to be sold something on the basis of its strengths, rather than hear criticisms of alternatives.
What was your view/opinion of how the dealer presented their options? I’m reading a bit into the last bit of your post, but suspect you would have preferred they were more positive?
Good luck deciding on your next system, I’m sure plenty of dealers would let you demo what’s on your list, and nicely suggest alternatives if they believed they’re both worth listening to and in budget… which is how I think lots of buyers would wish to be treated 
It’s a typical average dealer who only tries to sell you what gives him the best profit.
I’d visit such kind of dealer for the first and for the last time.
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Not sure how typical, but certainly a dealer to avoid.
Roger
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I’m not trying to be disparaging about the dealer. He was just giving his personal advice and opinions, which as I said was “educational”
My own dealer is the excellent Jack at the Audiobarn and when ready will have an extensive listening session with him
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Seconded 
ATB, J
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I’ve only used Jack once when I bought my mundane and boring sounding, NG Klimax DSM. Very nice to deal with and what a lovely location for a dealer too. No shortage of parking there.
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Did the dealer ask what amp and speaker you have now? And if so did I assime he didn’t have at least the same or similar speakers? And I assume he didn’t have ATC SCM either passive or active, however even if he didn’t have either speakers you are familiar with or the speakers you said you were interested in, it seems very odd choosing to demo with amp and speakers having a combined cost more than double. Perhaps he didn’t get impression you were a serious potential customer, and given that you just dropped in on the off-chance rather than booking, you simply got to hear just what was sitting there connected up.
Very easy to confuse dealer and product. I’m sure many will recall the period when one manufacturer attempted to dictate that they wouldn’t allow their products to be sold alongside those of the other. Some dealers felt, rightly or wrongly, that one or the other treated them poorly in those skirmishes so there may be some residual bad feeling around that.
When confronted with similar at one point, I dug deeper and found myself with some respect for the dealer. It was the reverse of this. Critical of Linn. Full of praise for Naim. Digging deeper revealed that some of that was about treatment of the dealer and some was about the products. Pushing post the outward brusqueness revealed a dealer willing to go the extra mile but wuth s brutally honest assessment of producys no matter who made them. The whole Naim is good/Linn is bad dynamic was revealed to be a lot more nuanced and he was prepared to go off the record and say “Actually, they produce this and its brilliant but followed it with this which, despite great reviews, really is not.”
In the longer term a dealer prepared to answer “… but what do you really think and why?” can be just as useful.
Always worth mentioning that how we interpret things can differ hugely. I had some interactions with the Audiobarn a couple ov years ago. They could not have been more brusque, dismissive or unhelpful but they key wirds always need to be added “… to me.” Your mileage can vary hugely.
I bought my current Naim kit from Audiobarn, agree with the other comments, excellent on all counts.
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Jack is a good guy.
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“He was, shall we say, dismissive of Naim saying that the sound comes from in front rather than above and behind, saying quite a few Naimees ended up with hearing issues from loud listening. He also didn’t recommend active. The demo used a high end Vitus integrated amp“
Is it possible that said dealer resides in leafy Walton-on-Thames?