I had a Sony KV-36XBR400 HD WEGA a couple years ago (it was about 2 years old then), and it was indeed impressive. But it was, afterall, not handbuilt like my Zenith 25DC56. The Sony boards were assembled by a chip placer machine someplace in Asia, then soldered by a wave machine, then inspected by an AOI machine. Then put in the cabinet in Mexico by an unskilled manual laborer.
My Zenith was engineered in Chicago by World War II veterans, handwired by cute girls, and assembled by skilled Americans into a cabinet made of solid steel from Pittsburgh. And don't forget that the picture tube was custom-ordered by a high school kid in Los Angeles in the 80s
and that tube was built in an old building on Washington Blvd by a guy who played golf with Richard Nixon (long story)...
As I have said previously, I still have my Zenith in the livingroom!
Charles