Back in the late 70s, through the 80s and early 90s, I was very lucky to have a great audio dealer, some 90 miles from where I lived. I both spent many long night listening recessions in his shop and brought equipment back to my home for audition. During that period of time, I was able to buy, sell, trade or exchange (within my budget) some very nice audio gear, with that dealer. Also, I traveled quite a lot during that time period and made a point to check out all audio I could, in my travels.
Through the 2000s, I moved to a rather remote area and found myself having to down size - doing a good deal of selling and buying on line and having to deal with some of the horrors of shipping.
I'm now fortunate to be living in an area that, within 100 - 300 miles, has a few good audio dealerships and a good many private individuals, buying, selling and trading audio gear.
It's my suggestion to the OP - you might consider used and if you're up to a bit of traveling - check out the for sale adds and converse (through the site/sites) with the sellers, to arrange a personal audition before buying. It may not be in your home, but at least, is in a home environment and you can see and hear, up front, what you might be getting, as well as make some new audiophile friends....Jim
