In my latest posting over at Theo’s Roundtable today, I take aim at the legions of receivers I’ve been dealing with recently. Tons of inputs, many of which are no longer needed, and interfaces that are horribly out-of-date. There is some progress here, with the Sony STR-DN1040 packing an interface that looks like it was done in the past decade, but overall the receiver seems to lag behind. It’s too big, too complex, and too overwhelming for many people.

The IBM PC was the same was in 1982. Sure, it could do things you needed it to do, but could most people go to the store, pick one up, and be productive with it right away? No. Even if you don’t like the Macintosh, you have to admit that they helped to push the PC and make it a far better device. Now AV needs the same thing: A company with a radical vision to make things easier and better, and to pull everyone else along for the ride.

Someone gave me the example of Sonos over Twitter today, which is a great one. More expensive than many other streaming products, and no support for higher bitrate content either. When compared to other devices out there, they are the most Apple-like product on the market possibly. Simple, elegant, and great at what it does. It can’t do everything, and it isn’t cheap, but it’s a wonderful solution because they thought about it differently.

To see everything I had to say, and join the discussion, head over to Theo’s Roundtable to read my full blog posting on why AV needs its own Apple.