Sorry to hear about another bad encounter at the local audio retailer. My advice is to never visit or buy one item from that particular retailer. They won't be around much longer, if what you said is true, and I would try to find a local, regular A.goner and try to strike up a correspondence, and take it from there. This site has a ton of people with knowledge if you ask the correct ones.
Getting Started
Hi, I'm totally new to this hobby. So new, in fact, I have no system at all. After lurking here for a while, I thought it best to visit my local audiophile store. I did that last week and alas, it was not a good experience. When the clerks stopped ignoring me, they were very disinterested in my newby-questions and I was pretty quickly pissed off at what I perceived to be their dismissive, knowledge-snob attitude. What is so unfortunate about this is I live in a rural area and that's the only shop within 40 miles of me. I'm wondering if I can lean on you guys to help me put together a sub $2K amp and speaker pairing. It sucks to not demo but I don't have much choice currently. In the future, when I can find a good store where I can actually demo some stuff, I can upgrade. Right now, I just want to get into the game! I want a couple of floor-standers for primarily music (they'll be hooked to the TV as well). My room is 13x22. Thanks in advance.