Is my dealer lying to me?

Celtic66 is absolutely right. I have experienced severe flak in this forum for saying that most audiophiles have a tremendous need to believe that $$$ = better sound 24/7. There are many "deals" out there in new equipment. Equipment whose price/performance ratio is outstanding on its own, but, and more to the point, that offer very high sound quality that should leave most everyone, except died in the wool upgraders, satisfied for years to come and that could leave time and money for recordings; which is what the whole thing is about in the first place. I will spare everyone the anecdotal evidence I can think of which tends to demonstrate that if an audiophile believes he/she is listening to a mega-priced component while in fact some lesser priced unit hidden somewhere inside a cabinet is playing, he/she will quite often wind up with egg on the face.

Subaruguru is closer to what I think is the proper hierarchy of things audio: the transducers are critical, to which I want to add that speakers are probably the "weakest link" (it's hard trying to sound female, British, annoying and nasal, in writing...). That is not to say that the people favouring a balanced approach are wrong. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. I will trot out my old warhorse again: cables are the least significant factor and they should not be used to alter the sound of a system, unless something is wrong with the components (oh! sorry, yes, yes, cables ARE components), they should be neutral. Ever since Linn came out with the LP-12 and announced to the world that the greater portion of your budget should be on the source and the dealers started to sell lopsided systems consisting of a very expensive turntable/arm/cartridge combo with a tiny British amp and equally tiny two way speakers, this idea of the source being the prime consideration resurfaces regularly. The source is very important, but you have to have balance or else you may very well be equipped to reproduce the Linn dealers demos of yore: chamber music played at a very "reasonable" spl. Strange to think Linn only made turntables back then, maybe preaching for his own parish, no? From the little I know about music (euhm...), it is dynamic and when the going gets tough, you do need the speakers with both range and dynamics and, taking into account how efficient those speakers are, a power amp with enough gumption to drive them to the required levels in a clean fashion. In closing, Subaruguru mentioned the room in which all that sound and fury will be sampled: again right on, proving two things: the guru knows cars and sound systems. Yes, no sense in pining for that last bottom octave if your room will kill it. As in all things, balance is what counts, but to achieve it certainly means a holistic approach which includes the room and which does not mean that every component in this chain should be treated equally. And in answer to the question itself: dealers speak the truth AS THEY KNOW IT. I have never met one wishing to sell a less expensive product or actively inciting a customer to buy a product from a line he does not carry. Although, I have heard a sales person in one of the largest shops here recently telling me that tube products are not reliable and that the store stopped selling a Canadian brand of tube electronics because some of their products would actually blow up in flames or at least set themselves alight... The truth is a rare and elusive commodity. Regards.