What do you do when you live hours from nowhere

Sorry guys, I've been "out of pocket" for a few days (having broken my ankle and surgery on it). I really appreciate the responses.

Here is some background on me: I live in rural Georgia so I'm a bit out in the boonies. Atlanta is the closest place to me with good equipment, but I think there is really only 1 high end retail shop. I'm open for good suggestions there. 

It seems to me that good "high end" stereo shops have been disappearing since I was in college. I got into stereo in high school, early 70's scraping money together for Advent speakers. 

Back then folks loved to turn other folks on to new and better equipment for the joy of the music that equipment could reproduce. Even when I didn't have much money the excitement was palatable. My Brother and I had a passion for music that we still share. He has a really interesting system. We still visit one another and listen to each other's recordings and set-up. It seems now dealers push certain products because they are so limited in their suppliers. It also seems to me that folks have gotten more strident in their positions regarding certain equipment.

A recent interaction that partially prompted the post was that I was shopping for tubes for my pre-amp and called a tube dealer for a recommendation for tubes (I was going to buy them from him after doing research here). First he criticized my pre-am as being hard on tubes and poorly designed, the he asked if I had noticed any microphony. I'll admit I'm not familiar with that word and so I told him I wasn't. His response "I don't have time to give lessons." My Brother and I have used tubes in amps and pre-amps for a long time (he still has some VTL amps and various tube components as do I). This pre-amp doesn't produce much (if any) noticeable hum/noise nor does it got through tubes quickly.

I've done the same as some of you for awhile. I've had speakers that likely none of you have heard (Hartleys - surprising sound) and other well know brands. For instance, not too long ago I had a pair of used BW 802d's speakers and another brand of speakers in my listening room. I was doing A/B demos with my source equipment to determine which speakers worked best in my room with my stuff. My wife called the BW's "the alien speakers." In the process of the demo, I also traded out amps (all SS brands CJ, Bryson, McIntosh mono blocks) and pre-amps (tube vs SS)  to determine what combination I liked best. The BW's I had heard before - the other speakers I bought sight and sound unseen. I have since sold most of that equipment (I tend to be a hoarder though).

Anyway that gives you where I'm coming from in this process. I may have rambled a bit - chalk that up to pain meds. 

Thanks for the thoughtful responses, perhaps one day I can meet a few of you (as has happened).

I think I'm going to have to go to an electronics/stereo show sometime in the near future.

Thanks again folks.

There's some good advice here. I hadn't thought of going to shows. Partially because my wife thinks 1. This hobby is crazy 2. I spend too much on it as it is and 3. Travel to listen to equipment, you are really out of your gourd!

I'm not worried about being snubbed. I was making an observation about the hobby and the various personalities. 

I also like the advice about figuring out folks I think have meaningful stuff to say. 

Truth be known, the most significant thing I could do right now to improve my sound is to improve the acoustics of my listening room (structurally). I think average systems in a great room can beat really good systems in poor rooms. 

I'll look at those around Atlanta (I'm going to call and see their setups first). I can't tell you how many times I've tracked down "dealers" (particularly "home theater dealers") only to find they they have no setups to hear true stereo systems. "We're a Wilson dealer, but we have no Wilson rooms. Vandersteen, yep we can order 'em, but you can't hear them. You idiot."

I would bet that HiFi Buys would be better ( I can remember a few shop parties with an early HiFi Buys franchisee friend of mine years ago at a nameless shop - there were quite a few systems sold after that little event).

There were a couple of smaller shops with esoteric equipment that have gone out of business in Atlanta. They had some good equipment/representatives (at one time I owned Meadowlark audio speakers from one of those guys and VTL amps).

It's amazing to me the margins on the equipment. While I like craftsmanship externally, I wish I knew the very best value per dollar for sound for every component at every price range. To hell with impression, just give me performance. I've got a CJ Priemer 18 LS 2 pre-amp, I like it, but I'd like to know what other pre-amp slays the bugger for the price it commands. SS or Tube would do. You guys have any suggestions?

Thanks again for all the responses. You guys are helpful. I hope to run into you in some gracious context to compare sound.