Oxia, you and I are in complete agreement. I have purchased most of my gear factory-direct online for two reasons. The first being that I agree with your assessment that factory-direct companies are better bang-for-the-buck.
Secondly, I live on Maui and there are zero brick & mortar audio shops here. But even if there were, I would still probably prefer factory direct.
I have not heard the Acoustic Reality amps, but I am sure they are very good. I believe digital is certainly the wave of the future. I said that the minute I listened to the HCA-2 stock.
I also believe digital is in it's infancy, including the Acoustic Reality products. I suspect in a few years we may possibly hear things from digital products we didn't think possible. But having said that, I anticipate in early '05 I will be auditioning equipment to overhaul my entire system. At that time I plan on auditioning Tenors, Berning, Goldmund, etc., so I haven't completely written off tubes as evidenced by the Tenors and Berning.
As good as Spectron & Acoustic Reality may be (and I would love to compare both to my modded HCA-2), I suspect that the likes of the amps that I mentioned above are still in a different league. Five years from now, as digital really begins to mature, it may be a different story. But currently I still believe (admittedly, without hearing them) that digital amps may still be bettered with high-end conventional designs. I will find out in a year or so.