Disappointments

Yes. 

Definitely. It was a big lesson.

I have never again bought gear based solely upon a showroom demo and don’t expect I ever will.

Yes.  Got my first car and wanted to upgrade the stock speakers in the rear well.  Wanted Pioneer 3-way oval speakers I had been eyeing for quite a while at my local HiFi store.  Saved up and finally bought the box I had been eyeing and brought it home.  It only had one speaker.  I brought it back and they said they didn’t have anymore and that they were discontinued.  They wouldn’t take it back since I had opened the box.  They knew what they were doing and they took advantage of a kid.  Tech HiFi went out of business.  I hope they salted the earth so the store can never grow again.  I drove around with that one speaker in the rear well until I sold the car.  Fast forward 50 years to the 19 speaker Lexicon system in my Genesis GV70.  Living well is the best revenge.  

@bassbuyer 

I personally put TechHiFi out of business, at least I like to claim I did.

They were on 45th street, NYC, near Harvey's. They advertised low price items to get you in the store, AND they had a price guarantee.

1st time, they denied, based on unimagined rules. I read the small print, figured it out, and went back shaking ads for lower prices in their face many times.

@ghdprentice boy, do I hear you. First preamp to replace the preamp section of my Sansui 2000x receiver (just built my Ampzilla) was an ESS preamp- sound “as clear as light” with tons of feedback to give low distortion figures. Except it sounded sterile- thin and bright and edgy. This is when I realized that published distortion figures measured on a static signal meant nothing.

I then bought a Soundcraftsman PE2217 based on the Absolute Sound rave review. It was better despite poorer specs, but it had that grain that you describe. It was not terribly resolving either, and was two dimensional in imaging.

I then purchased a non-working Marantz Model 7, replaced the non working rectifier with a solid state rectifier bridge, replaced the electrolytic capacitors in the phono section, and replaced the paper capacitors with CDE molars, and the resistors in the signal path with metal film resistors, and replaced the tubes with new Dutch Amperex tubes.

WHAT A TRANSFORMATION. Depth, image from wall to wall. Natural, liquid and more resolving to boot. Been a tube guy ever since!