So I’ve been complaining for awhile that I need a new stereo receiver.

Mind you, I love my current receiver. It’s a Sony ES series and has been an excellent receiver for years.

(Yes of course it’s tuned to the local public radio station.)

However.

It’s at least 18 years old, if not 19. So it doesn’t have anything close to the number of inputs in the back it needs. XM goes into the tape deck slot, but this is not ideal as the volume is off and there’s a faint buzzing the louder you play it, and although the DVD players goes through the stereo, Dish TV runs only though the TV. Which isn’t that big a deal as Grandmom is the only one who uses the TV, and she’s afraid to touch the stereo.

Nor does it have enough speaker outputs–and I only own six speakers.

And look at my poor remote. The back to the battery case has been held on by a rubber band for about ten years now (at one point it was a black pony tail holder, but that wore out last year and I didn’t have a replacement).

So we’ve known for awhile it needed replaced, we’ve just put it off.

Until browsing the Black Friday sales on Amazon we saw receivers 50% off. Yesterday’s deal, even at 50% off, was way more than we could afford. But today, they have Denon AVR-888 for $350–more than 50% off.

And the thing is sweet. No, I’m not one of those people that can spout specs–my house is too small for that good of a system–but it has everything we were looking for, and it’s a Denon!

I’m sorry I couldn’t find a Sony for a replacement. As I said, my Sony has been excellent for a long time. But never fear, my Sony won’t be heading for a landfill–it’ll head down to the basement so I can listen to something different downstairs than is playing upstairs.

Not that it matters too much. As I said, it’s a small house. But still!

And now I can’t wait for my new receiver!

Too bad we’re not smart enough to figure out what cords we need beforehand.