Bob:
There is a cost efficient way of testing the equipment in YOUR room, with YOUR speakers, and YOUR wires, whnever YOU feel like it, and not pay full retail price -- buy used equipment.
At any given price point, there shouldn't be TOO many amps available (so once you figure out how much you want to spend it should be fairly easy). Go to sites like audiogon.com or audioweb.com, look for fair market values on some of these used equipments. Buy a couple/few of them (depending on your cash flows), keep them for a few months, and decide for yourself which one you like.
At worst, you'll end up short the shipping you pay for these amps.
Hope this helps.
