George,
Thanks for the welcome !!! It's true I've grown to enjoy Home Theater Talk quite a bit. Mostly because there's a bunch of Tampa area audio enthusiasts that post there. You know my main reason for coming to these sites is for the opportunity to meet (and hopefully make friends with) like-minded music-lovers. In fact, I've got another Audio Meet going on at my place this weekend. Of the 12 attendees, there's a few folks I haven't met face-to-face yet.
The stores in NYCity (in which I can remember the name) were:
> Harvey's (right around the corner from where I worked - JPMorgan)
> Lyric Hi-Fi (up on Lexington)
> Innovative Audio (somewhere around 60th Street???)
> Sound By Singer (Downtown)
There was one more, but I can't remember the name. I'm sure it wasn't Stereo Exchange, but Park Ave. Audi sounds familiar (but perhaps I've just seen it in a magazine). Of course, we also camped out at the big HE Expo at the Hilton (up on 6th Ave) in the Summer of 2000 - this is where I heard the widest assortment of gear.
Yes, Audio Connection is where my friend ended up getting all of his gear, and the gentleman there was really fun (knowlegeable and blunt). I think his name was John, but it has been almost 4 years now. Although my friend still works for Morgan, Verona is considerably closer to where he lives there in NJ. As for myself, once I knew I was moving to Florida (Spring of 2001), I stopped researching the gear. But fortunately, I already knew the gear I wanted.
I'm sorry your experiences were not as positive as mine.
Kevin