I started my "slippery slope slide" in 1997 so I’ve been pursuing this for about two decades. I think all the factors you cited above matter. For me it is primarily about sound, and I have purchased gear from Audiogoners, Brick and Mortar dealers and online shops. I would say that with a couple of exceptions, my interactions have been favorable. Those two times I felt that I was unwanted or mislead were with dealers I sincerely approached in the SF Bay Area (I won’t say where, they are long since out of business) that lied to me or completely fouled up the audition experience despite my calling well ahead of time and agreeing to let me listen with a properly configured system.
I have owned many amplifier brands, both solid state and tubed, and my current system is a hybrid: tubed preamp and monoblocks, and solid state stereo subs. It matters to me how the equipment looks, but I have a man cave for listening and with the lights turned low, my goal is to forget the gear and just absorb into the music. I greatly value amps that are quiet, easy on the ear, dynamic and don’t sound like they are breaking a sweat. If they can cast a realistic soundstage and have good three dimensionality, i.e., good separation, so much the better. I also value that the manufacturer of my preamp and amps are in the US, use as many US made components as possible, use local jobbers for sheet metal and powder coating, and have their own internal magnetics shop to do transformer fabrication and winding. Reliability, quality, sonics and price are my main value markers.
I will give one shout out to an absolutely top notch dealer that all others should emulate, that being Echo Audio in Portland, OR. Good people, good audio gear.
I have owned many amplifier brands, both solid state and tubed, and my current system is a hybrid: tubed preamp and monoblocks, and solid state stereo subs. It matters to me how the equipment looks, but I have a man cave for listening and with the lights turned low, my goal is to forget the gear and just absorb into the music. I greatly value amps that are quiet, easy on the ear, dynamic and don’t sound like they are breaking a sweat. If they can cast a realistic soundstage and have good three dimensionality, i.e., good separation, so much the better. I also value that the manufacturer of my preamp and amps are in the US, use as many US made components as possible, use local jobbers for sheet metal and powder coating, and have their own internal magnetics shop to do transformer fabrication and winding. Reliability, quality, sonics and price are my main value markers.
I will give one shout out to an absolutely top notch dealer that all others should emulate, that being Echo Audio in Portland, OR. Good people, good audio gear.