Well, I went to the local high-end audio store today to order the Niles simply because their site says it is compatible with plasma and lcd too. They carried both Niles and Sonance. They had the Sonance in stock and would have to order the Niles. Sonance's site doesn't really claim that it is compatible with both types, but the included documentation does. I bought it and it's working beautifully. Woohoo!!!
I placed all the individual emitters and got my daughter to hold the receiver while I tested it in several positions. I didn't like the performance behind my speaker grills, so I tried it out on a black piece of plastic on the TV, between the screen and the speakers below it. Worked great. The plastic piece is about 2 inches tall. She was holding it at the top. When I started hiding the wire in a crack, I liked it better at the bottom, so that's where I put it, less than 2 inches down from where we tested it. It was getting some noise interference and not working well. I moved it back up to the top, again less than 2 inches up, and it works like a charm.
Summary: Play around with the placement of the receiver before committing to the final placement. There were other places that worked well, but my final position receives great and less than 2 inches away works horribly. (I'm sure this is true with all brands). The reason it didn't work behind my speaker grills might have been an interference as well. I'm told that acoustically transparent grills only cut down on the performance a little bit.
Properly placed, I love the Sonance.
It comes with 4 emitters and that would max out the kit, however you can get dual emitters. If you do that, you can control up to 8 devices.
$200 plus tax is more than I wanted to spend, but I got tired of waiting for the Xantech, which was $150. The Niles is $250.
Hope this info helps someone else. Thanks for the input.
