Having recently returned to our hobby after a 20-year hiatus, I've taken to reading Stereophile, TAS, etc. One thing that has amazed (and dismayed) me is the quality control problem in the (high end) industry. How many times have we read reviews that went: "It stunk until I sent it back... got a new unit... wow, what a difference..."? Or similarly-minded manufacturer responses to less-than-doting reviews ("...as soon as we got the unit back to the factory we examined it and found a bad {part-of-the-day}...")?
Is it possible that you could have a bad component? When you said that "this same system sounded UNBELIEVABLE in the dealer's showroom," do you mean that THEIR demo units sounded great, or did you actually shlep your own equipment to the store for a listen? If the former, and if you trust the dealer's integrity and skills, then you might want to have one of their staff come to your home for a critical demo.
Good luck
Doug
Is it possible that you could have a bad component? When you said that "this same system sounded UNBELIEVABLE in the dealer's showroom," do you mean that THEIR demo units sounded great, or did you actually shlep your own equipment to the store for a listen? If the former, and if you trust the dealer's integrity and skills, then you might want to have one of their staff come to your home for a critical demo.
Good luck
Doug