This dealer is about a three hour trip from where I live. I might break it up into multiple days when I go and leave the Diablo at the shop if they let me. I find that intensive listening can be a mind game where you can easily fool yourself. I’ve found that in many cases your first impressions can either improve or degrade after time, once your ears and mind are given a chance to adjust. When I was amp shopping a few years back, I was dehydrated and had been rushing around. Resulted in a very useless auditioning session. I find it quite stressful as I tend to perpetually second guess my conclusion until my conclusions eventually stabilize. It’s a lot of work! Also I tend to find some sort of intolerable fault in 95% of what I test. I almost gave up before I discovered the Diablo 300. As someone said, the Diablo isn’t totally neutral and it’s slight coloration is part of the reason I love it so much. Although, one recent pro review claimed they coloration came from the intrernal DAC module and not the amp. Either way the sound is great, but I probably would have saved a ton of cash if I hadn’t found it!
Going to have to start getting in shape so I can lug that thing to the shop without tweaking my back…. Not even joking. Although we’ll probably make it a family trip and get a hotel for a few nights, so I will have help!