My last rodeo

@kennyc Thanks for the heads up. The timing couldn't be worse as we are headed up to Canada for a week or 2.

@tburdwin -sorry, have little first hand experience with audio dealers in your neck of the woods- I know that one person took my recommendation to visit pitch perfect (which I think is now in Cathedral City, Ca) at a time when Shindo was still a very active brand, and bought into that sound. 

I guess the other bit of advice I would offer is to seek out dealers who promote different things--such as planars, dynamic speakers and horns or high efficiency speakers, and consider the amplification most appropriate for that type of load-- 

 I guess at this point, we’d need to talk about your room, size, dimensions, materials and surfaces, etc. 

and remember that no one dealer is going to have all brands/lines and will promote what they think is best to them. If you get enough seat time (and especially if you have multiple dealer options available that are close), you should really let your ears tell you what sounds most real to you, recognizing that an effective demonstration is going to maximize the results and your experience at home may differ. 

PS: as an after thought, I guess conceptually the best way to look at this is that you are building a system and synergies are real things which are very hard to know if you are buying X amp, Y speaker and are left to your own devices, such as reading reviews or listening to a sales pitch. 

I am at my last rodeo and just have to decide on a turntable/tonearm. I have had the pure joy of owning Kharma Grand Ceramique speakers for 15 years and highly recommend them. There happens to be a pair available for 12.8K on Audiogon. They originally sold for 68K and were the flagship for Kharma at the time. Enjoy the journey! 

@chrisoshea Negotiations with my wife.

Thanks @likecap It is a journey!