I have the 36" Hybrid cooktop and love it. I was hooked on the knobs too. Not having tried any others, I can't give you a comparison. However, I don't think I would go with anything else. I've looked at the others, and was impressed with GE's look. But, I was impressed by info from this forum on the Viking and the fact that it doesn't share power, and took the plunge. I was doing that with my old cooktop because it was broken. So at the time, I wasn't hearing any power sharing. Now I don't think it would matter as much to me. I'm still glad I went with the Viking.

Only regret - didn't get full induction. I wish I had spent the extra to get it. The induction eyes are so much easier to keep clean. The noise that all inductions have doesn't really bother me. In fact, it's almost good to have since the light doesn't come on like for the other eyes. The light hmmmm let's me know it's working. Sometimes I may take the pan off the eye because I'm doing something else (like cutting up veggies or something)and after awhile it cuts off. Without the hmmm, I wouldn't know. But as I said, it isn't bad, to me, at all.

I know that Viking's CS is horrid, but hopefully I won't have to go that route. My warranty is through my dealer - I just found out that it is GE. Not sure I like that, but oh well, that's what I have.

Hope this gives a little perspective

Thanks for the input, gneegirl. I've read your posts about the viking hybrid and was encouraged but I really wanted to know about the rangetop, which is even more of a committment than the cooktop. I love the knobs in the front and the layout. What I'm most worried about, is that if I don't like it or it's unreliable, I'm so stuck because it sits on a cabinet, not in the counter top, and no one else makes one, so it would be basically unreplaceable (unless I wanted to replace the countertop and cabinet).

But wait, you have the cooktop. Do you find that the knobs get totally grease splattered and are hard to clean? That's one of the reasons I prefer them in the front and not on top.

It may not matter in the end, because I may end up putting the oven under the cooktop which would rule viking out all together, but that rangetop is still my number one choice. They have one cheap on ebay, but it's white and I don't think that would look too good on soapstone lol.