Welcome to our forum.
Here's what I would add as someone who lives in Sacramento: almost all of the "good" brands of spas have dealers around here, so you really have your pick (Though some are in Roseville). I have been in a couple locations of California Backyard, and though I was not looking for a spa at the time, it seemed that EVERYTHING in there was overpriced. Not sure if that applies to spas.
Don't bother to do a dry test. It is virtually useless and will give you a false sense of the tub (either good or bad). Wet test or don't test at all.
So....you're saying that sitting in a tub without water is NOT going to tell you if a) the seats are too confining, b) if the tub's got enough leg/foot room for the number of people that will be using it, c) if the seating is too shallow for taller people to comfortably get use from, without having to scrunch down....d) if it's too DEEP for short people.....That's ridiculous...even without water in the tub, taking your shoes off and plopping your butt in it CAN be of some value...NOT the full effect, but better than just eyeing up a brochure and guessing.
When we shopped for spas, we first dry tested the spas and if that felt comfortable we did a wet test which felt even better! But if the dry test came out that seats too deep, too uncomfortable, or we didn't like the spa period, we didn't bother with wet testing. Sometimes the dealer didn't have the model we were interested in filled with water so we didn't have a choice but to dry test.I agree with Tatooed Lady - dry testing does have merit. Once you find a model that you like, do both a dry (to see how the seats feel) and west test to get the full affect. Sorry clayclay for side tracking your original post! I cannot comment on Vita spas as we don't own nor have tested them - dry or wet!