Are newer remotes rubbish?

[MrTwo]

Just an observation... the remote on my 12 year old Sony CD player was brilliant, you could point it almost anywhere in the room and the player would respond. With all my more recent equipment the remote has to be pointed fairly accurately at the kit I'm trying to control, and even then I sometimes have to press the button more than once.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Can I upgrade my remotes with more powerful IR emitters?

[JimBobVFR400]

TBH I very rarely use an original remote for anything other than teaching my Pronto.
I think it probably varies. I have a remote for my year or so old Plasma that you can point almost anywhere. The remote with my DVD recorder needs a bit more care with pointing it though. I find remotes that use AAA batteries aren't as good as ones using AA. I also think its hard to be general as I have a 10-15 year old Cambridge Audio CD remote which is a bit rubbish.
Having said that my Pronto is brilliant for bouncing signals, it does use AAA but four of the buggers and its got 4 IR emitters (did you know you can see IR being emitted on the screen of a digital camera?)

For the hassle and possible battery life decrease I rather get a good universal (Harmony/Pronto etc) than try and upgrade a factory remote. Not sure if it would be possible even.

I do have a cheap DVD player (supermarket £15 job) upstairs. the remote on that was shocking. I dismantled the remote and found the IR emitter was inset a long way inside the case. Desoldered it and moved it nearer the window. the small IR window at the front was not allowing the signal to scatter much. Now much better

[MrTwo]

I noticed that the Sony remote has a wide black window at the front, while all the others have a bare IR LED poking out.

I wasn't too serious about modifying my remotes - I'm OK with a soldering iron but it could all go horribly wrong! Maybe this is just the excuse I need to buy a Pronto or a Harmony.