myadbox

No manufacturer offers a receiver that’s dead simple to use, sounds great, and has adequate connectivity to hook up a cable box, Blu-ray player, and one or two other sources. Do you base your buying decision on the features lineup? Does the one with the most features win? Does your receiver really need to be THX Ultra2 Plus-certified, with four or more 1080p HDMI compatible inputs, and have Internet radio streaming, Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius Internet Radio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby PLIIz, Dolby Volume, DTS Master Audio, Audyssey DSX surround processing, Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume, iPod-dock-ready–plus front and rear USB inputs? Sure, it’s tempting to go for more rather than less stuff, but at what point does the technology interfere with actually using the thing? And no matter how much stuff is in there, next year’s models will have more. Can you slog through the hassles of “auto” setup, or even manual setup? Or do you even try? Today’s receivers are incredibly sophisticated devices, so getting them to just do the basics–playing a CD or a movie–can be a trial. Or it worked yesterday, but now, even with the correct input selected, you’re not getting what you wanted.