Ya, I wouldn't let the THX certification or lack thereof bother you too much. I could be wrong about the specifics of THX but I believe if a product doesn't pass in any of the categories it isn't legitimate. E.g. a subwoofer that can't hit a certian sound pressure level set by THX is not eligible to wear the logo, even if it passes through with flying colors in all other categories (or even performs stellar in ways not even tested for). In other words some very musical products may not be THX "quality" by a hair. (I may be wrong on that). Furthermore, just because a product doesn't bear the THX logo isn't an indicator that its not THX quality. The manufacuterer chooses whether or not to submit thier product for evaluation for the certification. They may choos not to because they have to pay a licensing fee to wear the logo. They may opt out of it for reasons like "it may not help the marketability of the product." THX is a nice idea for those who are interested in a serious home theater which guarantees them a certain level of performance without having to shop too hard (and I don't mean that in an insulting way). But if your instincts are taking you with another product then go for it. Although some things about THX are nice, like a THX certified decoder will knock a couple db of the higher frequencies in the center channel to compensate for the boost in alot of the recordings that were mixed as such to allow the sound to get through the movie screen and reach the listener ears the same intensity as the other channels (since the screen isn't acoustically transparent and the center channel is usually behind it). That's why some recordings sound overly bright for home theater even though they are acoustically fine for the full-blown cinema.
