I probably should have paid more attention to the front end equipment during the auditions but I wasn’t in the market for electronics. I’m very happy with my 20+ years old Audio Research tube equipment and recently replaced the tubes and had it serviced. I do recall that the dealers tried to approximate my setup by using similar tube equipment for the auditions.
Glad you also had a good experience with Dave. He told me that, before his visit, he thought I might need new electronics but, after hearing what I have, he no longer thought so. He also visited some other dealers in my area and came away saying that some of their much more costly systems didn’t sound as good as my KEF Ref. 5/Audio Research equipment. He recommended adding the Innuous Zenith 3, which I did and love, replacing my Aurilac Vega 1 dac, which I am working on, replacing my interconnects with Wireworld (which I have done) and adding a power conditioner—all of which I thought were reasonable recommendations .