I haven't looked at Niles much in the past few years but I'm just curious what experience you guys have had

The T-1 is decent. It could be alot better and hopefully it will be. You don't have a lot of options for layout its either the button is on or off. I was hoping the software would be more like a pronto since that is essentially what it is but the tech guy who demoed the unti for me last year felt that installers were too stupid to use a pronto like software and Niles wanted to make the T1 as simple as possible to install. I don't like that you can only label 30 cd dics what whole house audio system only has 30 cds? What is nice is the tuner I like the fact that it gives feed back for the Tuner. So you know exactly what station your on instead of the station your suppose to be on. The touchscreen is responsive you do have to mount it up high I think Niles recomends ~50" from the floor but even then I think it should ne a little higher to see. If they came out with a media server for this it would be amazing but the fact you can only label 30 dics is a real negative. I'm interested to see if anyone is using the new Xantech touchscreens you have a lot more control with that. I don't have any experience with the Sonance K2 but I'm sure RTI Installer can tell you more than you would ever want to know about it I think he uses it exclusivly. I do like the way the user interface does work its pretty straight forward and not to difficult for customers to figure out. I think they have a demo on the website. One other thing I don't like about the T1 is that it doesn't fit in a standard 2 Gang Plate if your doing a retro you have to take your time trying to put it in because they only gave you about 1/8" around the edge to fit it on the wall. Personally I think the Russound CAV6.6 is a really nice piece I don't have any personal experience installing it but the demo I went to seemed pretty promising. One possible negative depending on your point of view is that they charge extra for the software. When the media server comes out for that in the summer it should be pretty sweet. Let me know if you have any more questions about the T-1 thats all that comes to mind right now.

That's more than I expected. Thanks.
In general I've stayed away from Niles for quite a few years. Didn't really like thier keypads and IR so I moved in other directions but things change so much over the years you really have to take second looks at companies stuff. If enough people are having the same problems then the company has to do something about it and it looks to me like Niles has.

The K2 is an exceptional Keypad. To get Feedback on the T1, you need to use the Niles Distribution boxes (Bob or Gloria) which are mediocure at best. K2 Offers a lot more flexibility.... Built in Relay, Power Sense, Sync capability if you have more than one keypad in a room or area...

Double Gang compliant and a nifty RS-485 port that hopefully someday will do something.


Take a look at B&K as well. The CK1.2 is a great keypad for the money and when teamed up with the CT600, its a combo that is incredibly difficult to match. And yes.. IT provides tuner and Preamp status and feedback when used with the CT600/610/310

Good call on the need for a Bob or Gloria Impaqt sometimes its the big things that get looked over first.

The most extraordinary thing about the K2 is that it is very simple to program and operate. That in itself is not extraordinary except when you consider that K2’s just don’t fail, that is a lot to say for something, that is so complex on the inside. A lot of people don’t realize that the K2 is a stand-alone device; all it needs to operate is a power supply, a connecting block (Navidock), some CAT-5 and the programming software, which unlike the competition is free to anyone who cares to download it.
The K2 even has built in metal toggles, all you have to do is cut a 2 gang hole in the wall, connect the wire, insert the K2 into the wall and tighten the toggles, just like any old work electrical box or mounting ring.
With the exception of executing RS232 commands (not available at this time) and using RF, the K2 can do anything the RTI T2 can, well actually it’s a little better than the T2 because it does not suffer the same problems that the T2 has been known for in the past.
Now In regard to whole home operation, the Navigator Harbor is a great piece of gear, unlike some of the competitors, you can control all six zones with just 1 keypad or any combination there of, this is accomplished by using provided codes that can be keyed to control all zones in party mode or just the individual zone the keypad is plugged into.

I could go on but in short there isn’t anything near as good in this price range, highly recommended.

I agree with impaqt, you should look at the b&k as well we just spent alot of time testing between the gloria/bob and the b&k and it suprised me how much more i could do for the same money or less with a ct600 and their keypads. just my .02

I just installed a whole-house system using two B&K CT-600s, a CT1 IR router and eleven CK1.2 keypads. I have been VERY impressed with system. Previously we would have used Elan for this system, but the B&K offers a built-in tuner with feedback to the keypads plus several other neat features.

RTI,
I'm trying to match a K2 system to someone trying to trim the last 10% off the cost of the system.

If I have the 12 channel amp, can I control 2 left and right outputs of the Harbor individually with one K2? For example, I'll have a K2 in the game room; can I control the game room plus activate music to go outside on a different zone with the same keypad? Or do I only have local zone or all zone options?

Thanks!

Yes you can do what you suggest above

The Harbor has 6 internal on / off switches which allow you to deactivate global commands sent to any zone set to the off position. All other enabled zones would react to the party commands sent from any number of K2 keypads connected to any of the 6 zone inputs.

Maybe I didn't explain it well. Say the keypad is in zone 5 controlling output to a stereo pair of speakers in zone 5. Can the same Zone 5 keypad control the zone 6 source sending output to a different amp only without affecting zone 5 or any others??

You would have to turn off the party switches for all zones except for zone 6, this would give you discreet control of zone 5 and 6 independently via the 1 keypad located in zone 5. The drawback would be that you would not have global control of any of the other zones, which would need to be controlled by their own keypads, with the exception that keypads in zones 1-2-3-4 could also control zone 6 with party codes