@terry9: I understand your praising of Sound Systems (the owner’s name was Mike something) for not selling ARC to you, but the truth of the matter is: if Mike wanted to remain an ARC dealer he was prohibited from doing any differently. The ARC dealers were given territories, so as to protect other ARC dealers.
In 1972 I auditioned the Tympani T-I’s (and the ARC electronics) at both Sound Systems in Palo Alto and at Audio Arts in Livermore, and as I lived in San Jose (roughly equidistant from both) could have bought from either. During a conversation between Bill Johnson and one of his dealers I overheard Johnson make some unflattering comments about how Sound Systems had poorly positioned the Tympani’s in their not-so-hot listening room (lots of glass windows, hard floors, etc.), indicating to me their lack of a deep understanding of acoustics and the interaction of a pair of loudspeakers with the room in which they are placed.
Walter Davies at Audio Arts had built a dedicated listening room within his shop, with a sound proof door. Generous dimensions, no windows, carpeted floor, etc. It remains one of the best rooms I’ve heard reproduced music in. And then there was the fact that Walter was obviously an unusually intelligent (and as I came to learn highly educated) man, with a very non-pushy approach to selling hi-fi. The two guys at Sound Systems were just hi-fi salesmen. I of course bought my ARC/Tympani system from Walter, who assembled (the Thorens TD-125 Mk.2/Decca International tonearm/Decca Blue pickup), delivered, and installed it. I was happy with it for two years, until I heard the Fulton Model J loudspeakers, which had the fantastic RTR ESL-6 tweeter array and transmissionline-loaded dynamic woofers. Bye bye Tympani’s, hello Model J’s ;-) .
Years later I visited a new-to-me hi-fi shop in Santa Monica, just around the corner from where Randy Cooley would soon open his Optimal Enchantment shop (now THERE’S a great hi-fi dealer!). The shop was an apartment in an apartment building, with a terrible listening room (again, lots of glass windows). And whose shop was it? The "second banana" employee at Sound Systems! As years earlier, he was a jerk. A real smart ass, very unpleasant to be around for any length of time. See ya!