How Useful is a Magnolia Listening Test? Denon vs. Pioneer

I've been trying to decide between a Denon 2310 and a Pioneer Elite 23THX. I went to the Magnolia section at my local Best Buy to check them out. During the demonstration, the Pioneer sounded stronger in the mid-range and little thin in the bass (the tests were done without subwoofers) while the Denon seemed to have a little more bass throughout. Both sounded good, but I ended up feeling that the Denon had a warmer sound that I preferred.

I left the store wondering if what I heard was actually true of both receivers or whether I was just listening to the default settings without any kind of EQ applied. Short of setting up the receiver in your home using your speakers, can you really tell much about a receiver in a store situation like Magnolia?

I don't know if there was any room correction, how the controls were set or if there was bass management. I asked the salesman, but he couldn't answer.

The source was fed the same way and he did set the volumes at the same numerical levels. One didn't sound appreciably louder to me than the other.

If nothing else I learned that both the Denon and Pioneer run a lot cooler than the Onkyo I have now. Not a small thing. I've been worried that even with ventilation my current reciever is not only going to cook itself, but all of my other components as well.

He pulled the Denon off the shelf for a moment to check a connection, but I couldn't really tell. The moral of all this seems to be that unless you have five hours to learn and configure each receiver, a listening test at Magnolia is not going to be that helpful (other than finding out how hot each receiver runs).

I'm assuming that the impression I got that the Denon has more bass/warmth in the lower-end is not really true.