One other point: When doing A/B comparisons in a retail store you usually have your back turned to the salesworm. All kinds of shennanigans could be going on. While comparing a Denon 2802 to a Sony ES receiver the salesworm turned the volume and treble down on the Denon in order to get me to buy the Sony (it seems he and another salesworm were disagreeing about who should get credit for the sale - as I had demoed Denons with the other guy the day before).