been a bad receiver week for me...
 

came back from vacation last Wednesday to find my Pioneer 509 dead. it powered up and switched components, but wouldn't process any signal (analog or digital). i have no idea what could have happened to it. worked when i left. i thought maybe it was lightning since we had a few storms while i was gone, but it's on the same surge protector as everything else, and all my other components are fine. anyway, it's inexplicable. and it's aggrevating to be without a receiver for any period of time.

ordered a Kenwood 6050 last Friday and it came on Wednesday. i think it sounds better than the Pioneer...warmer and smoother are the most accurate adjectives i can use...purely subjective of course. it's also a bit more flexible in terms of settings in that it has more than just SMALL and LARGE. and the build quality can't be any worse than the Pioneer.

but the Pioneer had a fabulous learning remote and the Kenwood remote just sucks. pardon me while i go on a little rant here. it has an obscenely short list of codes, no infrared learning, and can't control my CD player. actually, "can't" isn't what i meant to say since it's a perfectly capable remote...what i meant to say is that Kenwood "encourages" you to own a Kenwood CD player. It was really stupid of me to assume that it would have a CD function.

so today i ordered a learning remote from sony that has a ton of codes, has infrared learning, and will do all the tricks on my sony TV.

so let me do the math on this:

VSX-D509: $250
VR-6050: $260
Sony Remote: $30
the Onkyo I wanted in the first place: $500
lesson learned: priceless

The onkyo you wanted was the $419 SR600 or the $632 SR700?

i think at the time it was the 595...