This is something I’ve noticed lately. A lot of hifi shops and hifi manufacturers have helpful staff, but just as many are extremely rude and arrogant.
I’ve had people speak condescendingly about my amp when I’m demoing speakers. Same thing for my speakers. I’ve even had someone, and I kid you not, tell me my streamer has shit sound quality.
It seems like hifi shops are either extremely helpful or just downright awful. The same with manufacturers, they either recognise that there exists alternatives or everything sucks ass compared to their product.
My first experience with a HiFi shop was with such a painfully arrogant owner… I had little experience and wanted information to get my first setup going. He was so damn arrogant and only wanted to sell me really expensive stuff way over my budget. ‘Yeah you won’t find a good setup under €5000’. That was the first and last time I set foot in that store.
Then I went to a different store in another town because we only have 1 audio store here sadly… And that was the complete opposite, super friendly and helpful staff and I told them my budget (~€2500-3000) and they told me all kinds of options that I could go with. The different kind of speakers, receivers and record players. And I learned a lot from them!