I dont have a store nearby, so i do most of my headphone exploring by buying and reselling used headphones. Havent made a profit nor a loss in 20 or so headphones. But in my country (Netherlands) the market is pretty bad, especially with the higher end stuff. People try to sell their (ab)used stuff often for more than new price and get annoyed when you offer them a more realistic price.
The next bigger stores here in my area are a few kilometers away but they are only selling stuff from JBL, Bose (bluetooth only), Sony (bluetooth only), Beats and a lot of noname stuff that the mainstream seems to prioritize. A few Sennheisers and AKG’s are there as well but that’s about it.
No Focal, no Denon, no Fostex, even no Audio Technica’s except one model that is really bright (the MSR7b), no Beyerdynamics (I had to drive a little longer to find a store where I was able to test them and I didn’t liked them), no Hifiman, no Audeze, no Meze… Nothing.
There are a few other smaller stores but they mainly only have speakers and amplifiers from Denon or Marantz for example.
I wish I could demo the Denon AH-D5200 because I’m interested in them. They could fit my tastes but I’ve read some contradictory things about their midrange. Some say it’s a bit distant and others say they are not. Some say it’s about the amp some say you don’t need one. This can be frustrating at some times.