Follw up. I spoke with John at Audio Connection yesterday and when I got off the phone, I had ordered the Music Hall 25.3 DAC and a high end balanced cable that costs much much more than the DAC itself since it will make THAT much difference. I've now spent around 4k since my last and only visit to the local shops. I trust John implicitly and I was a 'free agent' who would have spent that 4k plus locally if they had just asked some questions and followed up. I spent an afternoon in Florence MA at Spirit too (I've gotten many items here over the years and sent lot's of friends there for systems too), but the guy never made me feel totally comfortable. I think too many dealers treat people like they are tire kickers, when in fact many of us aren't. Stop judging the book by it's cover as I am disabled and I never dress up and don't always shave. If they watch me park the car, it's a BMW 5 series. I really can afford to purchase mid level high end equipment if I chose to. I now know why so many shops are having a hard time keeping the doors open. One good vender told me that it's too late for him to do anything else, so he just keeps the shop open and hopes to make a living. He was the dealer who told me I HAD to get an integrated that had HDMI or I wouldn't be able to use it in my 2.0 system without lip sync issues. I didn't want to purchase the NAD 3900 all in one digital integrated/DAC. I didn't love how it sounded and he only let me hear it with Paradigm Sig 2's. Funny as he had Focal's and that's what they let me hear the NAD stuff with at Spearit Audio and it sounded much better. They also had the NAD Dac, which I really liked and I realized that it had the HDMI option. I just didn't like the Focal's, lol.
That's when I expanded my search to include Audio Connection. I had originally told everyone that my budget was 3k or so on speakers and about 3k for a DAC and integrated. John stayed in those parameters, however I asked to hear Vandy's as he was so excited about them. All of a sudden my budget went from 6k to me selling off all my audio gear to get the 6k Vandy Treo's, the Ayre AX-7, The Music Hall DAC and top of the line Audioquest cables. Funny how that worked out. I don't mean to drone on, but I really like this site and all of you posters. How many of you have gone down this same road in the past (or currently)? When I find a dealer I trust and respect I will do everything to steer business their way. I've always been THAT guy and this is no different. I get nothing in return, but have learned that when someone is bad the word gets out quickly, but when folks do things the right way, most folks forget to share.
I'm sharing, lol. If you are looking for anything, you may want to hit up John as he has a ton of pre owned stuff too. I'm even letting him sell all my gear as I think folks would rather buy via credit card and from a real brick and mortar dealer where they have recourse if they don't like it. Hope others feel similarly. I've taken this thread all over the place, sorry, lol.
