I really don't like the idea of independents working directly for end users... there are just too many places where things can go wrong. What if the board finds out that you have uninsured contractors working in the building? What if you need service that exceeds what this person can give you in the future?

My thoughts on some of the misc. NYC entities...

Stereo Exchange - big store, great owner, great lines, hit or miss in only that you have to communicate with the staff. salesmen may or may not be busy at that particular time you walk in, given their busy soho/nolita/village location. save yourself time and schedule an appointment with nelson from the get-go.

Innovative Audio - also a major store, good people, good lines, i don't know too many of the people over there, but sure that you would do well to go there. solid custom installation history

Sound by Singer - high end lines, not much experience with them. i know they don't do the volume of custom installations as other shops, but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

Park Avenue Audio - great staff, great owner, good mid to high end lines, very knowledgeable cusom installation staff. sales staff is above average. talk to evan.

Lyric - more great lines (the five i mentioned so far pretty much dominate the NYC market for prime gear). larger ci staff than singer, but smaller than the others. (all of these guys so far also do Crestron)

Advanced Electric Design / Performance Imaging - very uhm... advanced... and a very solid CT based high end shop. they do great work and have a great design approach. i'm thinking large projects only here.

In Living Stereo - friendly staff, very small outfit, has the "other" hi end stuff, like sim, avalon, and some great hand made tube stuff. a pretty exclusively old school audiophile outfit that dables in the occassional ci. talk to steve.

Red Rose Music - Mark Levinson (ex-Cello CEO) - if your vision matches his, has some pretty amazing ability to put together a large amount of equipment at a price...

HKL consulting group - the advantages and feel of a design / build or pure consultanting approach to projects, buy also with the advantage of actually doing their own installations. great for very large projects or where there is a large amount of architectural detail that needs to be fleshed out.

Electronic Environments - also a firm that is super-competent in churning out those large projects. high profile clients with a no-show-room-design-build type of feel. One of the better automation-friendly houses in the city.

Of course there is a fair amount of cross polination between these different groups and every independent that I know has been affiliated with one of these companies at some point in time. you could also name any single outfit and i could draw some sort of line to at least 1, maybe 2 other companies.

I am an independent, and first off... no I will not do your project (mostly do design and engineering), but I do recommend you to any of these outfits, and if I knew more about your project, I could even make suggestions of which company would fit the flavor of what you were looking for.