I'm glad you said no malls. Those places are a joke. 10K for a ring that has no shine and sold to you buy a 17 year old girl that has no clue about diamonds. I went downtown to a jewlery my family has dealt with for over 20 years and he gave me great quality, great service and a great price.
The first thing mall places ask is "How much do you wanna spend?" Fuck that!!! This guy I went to didn't ask that; matter of fact, the first day I was there we didn't even talk price. Instead, he took his time explaining everything about diamonds, their history, his business ect... If you are interested I can do the PM thing. His store is small and appears as if he has nothing there, but he does. He can even get or build anything you want from any website for a lot less.