Best place to get orientation in buying equipment

Find a good local dealer.

Anyone you can recommend in your area? Seems that the internet made the ones in my area close shop

Here is a couple of dealers you may want to deal with. There is Peter at Pbn Audio in San Diego,he’s a pleasure to deal with extremely smart and won’t steal your money. Another person I’d consider would be Charlie over at Stereo Haven a pleasure to talk to and is only out to help you hope this helps enjoy the holidays

+1 for  Peter Noerbaek at PBN. Many years ago when I was in the business, Peter was the national sales manager for Cary Audio. I was the first west coast Cary dealer and Peter was great to work with. At that time, he was also the importer of AudioVector speakers, little known in the US, however they are very good speakers. I would also recommend Echo Audio in my town, Portland, OR. The Music Room in Colorado, and Audio Connection in NJ.