[kennyt]

I am frequently critical of remotes in my reviews, and for good reason. Many stock remotes suck! Poor lay out, no backlighting, incomprehensibly difficult programming and limited utility all spring to mind.

I want a remote that has several thing;

1) Logically laid out keys with palpable transport buttons and volume channel so I don’t need to look for them
2) Discreet IR commands for EVERYTHING!!! Power at a minimum.
3) Backlighting.
4) Ease of programming
5) One thing I don’t like is high end companies seem to feel they built their super high end component to the best of standards, and it is heavy, so they make the remote brick heavy as well! My remote doesn’t need to be able to double as a weapon!

I strongly agree with you on the Harmony remotes (why I own four of them.) The Marantz SR8001 I just finished reviewing does have a really good remote with it and something I had to praise Marantz for, while it is not as easy to program as a Harmony, it isn’t too bad and was very useful. I programmed my bedroom system in a short time and it worked well for controlling that system. I would not have wanted to program it to control my reference rig however.

KT