Has the internet been good for audio?

of course yes, BUT- once upon a time there were mid-fi stores all over my city; some would sell components at huge discounts. my 1st thorens tc-160 cost $185 at such a store (new). i had to buy and mount my own cartridge, but (so what?). then there was a unique store that had hafler and some better-sounding brands, including some tube equipment. plus they REPAIRED just about anything you could bring in to them.
there was a few different radio-shack-like stores too, with new and used (traded) components. and of course the high-end stores as well. i frequented them all, saved alot, and learned a lot. even the department stores had a huge variety of sound equipment. one store sold pianos and had a special room set aside for console stereos by fisher and scott.
for about $2000, at the time alot of $$, you could buy a gorgeous piece of furniture with a dual turntable (double-suspended), a sony tape deck, and an am/fm 120w/ch receiver with humongous 12in.4way speakers on the end panels. even my parents took a long look, before buying a stereo compact for $350. oh well...

i too have spent extra bucks for the privilege of auditioning components locally. am i to know how B&W-801's sound by reading someone's opinion in stereophile or over the internet? what about theils? mark levinson amplifiers? the 4-piece wilson WAMM reference speaker system, or the alexandrias? avalon ascents, rowland preamps and amps, vanderstein 2ce's, pass aleph preamps and amps, ETC!! should i have bought eggleston andra's without hearing them? when the store delivered their only pair, and set them up for me, positioning them carefully, i almost had a stroke i was so amazed and happy with the improvement. i learned many times over that money was only ONE factor amongst many that help you get the kind of performance you've been yearning for since you were twelve years old. without a local stereo shop- no make that SEVERAL DIFFERENT LOCAL DEALERS, how the heck are we ever going to get from point-A to point-B? yeah, you get ripped-off a little, but you get to LISTEN and you get to LEARN. AND LOOKING at the gear in person is infinitely nicer than six photos on Audiogon (not that i don't appreciate the pictures, I DO!!) so NOW i can navigate this site fairly well, and take the descriptions and opinions about closely-related components in stride. but that's because of decades of hands-on experiences starting back in the 60's. maybe an expansion of CES to alot of different cities around the country would aide in helping people getting familiarized with what this stuff really looks like and sounds like. we have an auto show and a boat show and a home-design show here every year, so why not?
even if you're just going to check out laptops or sony playstations, there's those gigantic amplifiers over in the next aisle that you might want to find out how much they weigh...