Theta dealers in the Washington DC area?

An alternative is Sound & Vision in Baltimore. You might also try contacting Theta directly; after all, its likely a dealer is just going to slap it in a box and ship it up to Theta anyway.

Avoid Soundworks, I've heard nothing but bad things about them, snooty attitude, etc.

Jond, I disagree. I know Mark Haflich, a co-owner of Soundworks, from over at www.avsforum.com (I moderate two forums over there, including the Special Guest forum) and Mark seems to be a class act. Be careful about what you've "heard" because it may not be accurate. First hand knowledge is more significant. You can e-mail Mark at jhaflich@erols.com and I think you'd find that Mark takes good care of his customers. By the way, I was talking with Lisa at Stewart Filmscreen the other month when she was making the arrangements for our AVS Forum CES Dinner Party sponsored by Stewart Filmscreen, and she happened to mention that Mark and his company Soundworks were one of their best dealers.

I would recommend going over to www.audioasylum.com and doing a search on Soundworks. I don't have any personal axe to grind, but I think you'll find some revealing posts there.

My experience at Soundworks about four years ago was about what the posts on audioasylum describe. The thing that floored me was that they flat refused to let me do an in-home demo. I was in the market for a HT processor, and was considering the EAD, but I wanted to take it home for a few days and see if my wife could figure it out and live with it. They said no way. I asked if I could buy it and have a money back guarantee, and was told no, I could only get credit towards a different purchase. Unbelievable!