I have steered clear of Sony for many years now. When I was working as an electronics bod in Amsterdam in the early 80s I got a bit of Sony kit in for repair so went to buy circuit diagram for which Sony charged nearly quarter the cost of replacing the unit with like type. Thankfully the faulty component was generic as, when I priced up some Sony specific bits, it could have cost as much to repair as replace even for 1 small component.
Nevertheless, I have always admired their technological innovation eg CD, Betamax, Minidisc, Trinitron tube etc although their have been some turkeys like the Elcasette. As the posts about DAT show, sometimes this bites the consumer.