Re Sony, I have two items, a VCR that I've almost never used since buying it a year or so ago and a CD carousel also little used since getting a Pioneer universal player that, by the way, has worked perfectly. The carousel had a problem while under warranty but the replacement unit has worked flawlessly, so my experience doesn't strongly support BloggingITGuy's opinions.
I find the whole discussion about the Trinnov optimizer literally unreal, since not one of us has heard it in action. If we're going to engage in this sort of thing why choose a historically respectable topic, like how many angels can dance on the point of a pin?