anyone dealing with this? Saw it at CEDIA...seemed cumbersome, but niche filling for some.

Comments?

avdude

Actually, this was an interesting product. The room contoller amplifier is definately not what I am used to but they claim non propeller heads like it better.
I liked its ability to plug right in to a retro situation with previously installed simple distribution with volume controls. For new installs run Cat5 to the contoller/amps. They have an outragious contoller cover moulded out of burled walnut that looked hot. I think ordinary folk will like it. I'm probably going to take on the line in the spring unless I hear bad things before then.

yeah...they're pushing it on us pretty hard....the one thing I DIDN'T like AT ALL at cedia was the gigantic patch panel you must use to plug everything into in the equipment room/wall...there were a bunh for speaker wires, and a bunch for cat-5...they all have several gadgets on the backside which make them neccessary....seemed quite cumbersome

avdude

I know what you mean about cumberson but if those panels were mounted on the back of a rack or on a wall it wouldn't be bad and you can do away with amplifiers. It also has an integral ir receiver with pass thru. I'm still investigating but out where I am there is hardly any new construction and tons of retro it's a nice fit

how's it work retro? I thought it HAD to have cat-5. does it only use four conductors?

avdude

Yes, only four conductors. They make an adapter that uses the original apt tp volume control 4 conductor speaker cable in place of the cat5 run.

nice....much cheaper alternative to matrix then...with alot more functionality, now they just climbed up my consideration pole a rung!

avdude

We have it installed in our showroom with three Controllers throughout the building, it's pretty neat that it is over cat-5 and the wall plates are amplified to 60W and good down to 4 ohms. they come with remotes but you could setup a blaster network and put a universal remote in each room with the wall plate and be good to go. They are coming out with or have already got a module that will allow you to control the source (cd, Radio etc.) from the wall plate, that will be nice. The price is way up there, but it is pretty versitile. it can play all sources, from optical digital to coax and line-level with a pass through so if your cd player only has line out then you can plug it into the wall and pass it back through locally. If you can't tell, I like the product.

I liked what I saw at the show but I would think for that much $ we should get feeback. They said by CES it would do a display for XM or SIRIUS. But I need it to do FM data like the Russound. I think it is still the best way to go.

My .02

how have your customers responded? Twist three clicks left...then push the button twice, then twist three clicks right...then push...

Is it priving EASY for those of you who have trained customers on it, or is it confusing and NOT user friendly?

I know it looks cool, and helps fill a niche, but can the end user use it?

avdude