Philip,
The EV Patrician is a speaker I always wanted to hear. We never ordered a pair and none of my friends had them.
The Bozak Concert Grand were great for the time. In the end I wound up with the vertical array of tweeters but added another Bozak tweeter array on top. This was an aluminum frame and allowed tweeters to align in a panorama type display which improved dispersion.
It was probably inaccurate but this was in 1968, I was a kid and thought it was cool. Many listeners thought it was great sounding so who knows.
The store was in Ft. Worth, TX. Audio Associates on Camp Bowie Blvd. I was there as sales and then manager for a few years before accepting a job as factory rep (5 states) for JBL, Infinity, Ampex, Crown and Denon.
After my time as a rep I found a job in photography (my other love). Over the years I missed being around the music and equipment and worked for dozens of manufacturers doing product images for ads.
I've gotten to hear a lot of equipment that way, and got to make pretty pictures for the guys that build.
Your comment about audio snobbery is absolutely correct. That prevails today in some stores I'm sure. I never missed an opportunity to greet people walking in the door. A much older gentleman who was also a salesman could not figure out why I was so happy to wait on people. He was always saying, "That guy's a flake, you're wasting your time."
I always said, "Hey, I'm paid to be here so I may as well listen to some music with this guy rather than sit on my butt and do nothing."
Last, yes I have the big Focal, they are excellent. I struggle every time I change speakers which is typically 10 years or so between models. It takes forever to figure out the precise location and tweak everything where it's completely natural and allows you to forget it's a stereo.
I'm not 100% there yet, the Focal are only about 8 months old but they have come up every month since they went into the space. Considering how much resolution they are capable of I'm very pleased with them and certain I can get more as time goes on.