I have no dog in this hunt but would like to say something about audiotroy.
I called him several months ago about a potential speaker sale. I had never spoken to him before. He spent about 30 minutes talking to me asking about my room, system, listening habits etc. We talked cables, power conditioning, amps, speakers and more. In the end, he felt like the product I was interested in might be too much of a lateral move and I should wait till I was ready to take a bigger step up.
It was probably the most enlightening and enjoyable audio gear conversation I've had. He never went into "sales mode". He took a lot more time to go over things than I was expecting. It suggested to me that he is interested in building a business on satisfying customers rather than pushing people into buying things that aren't right for them.
Imo, he carries a wide enough range of brands that I feel he can provide a quality system for anyone's tastes at any budget. He also makes it very clear that he is a dealer and offers a lot of great advice on here. I don't have any problem with his contributions to this forum. I don't get the animosity towards him.