Hello,

I have a problem. I have a client who did not want any keypads in his home so I suggested IR recievers placed with each pair of speakers and told him that the drawback to thi system (he wanted to use his old power amp to save $) was that he would not have individual control of the levels in each room via the remote. We did add a speaker selector/attenuator box so he could adjust the levels relative to eachother but not by remote. He said that that was exactly what he wanted.

Now that it is in, it seems he wants something else. So what are my options for controlling the level of each of the 6 pairs of speakers individually via IR remote with no keypads.

I know xantech makes a 12 channel IR controllable amp which would work, but it seems like a bit of a kludge with respect to the gain stages. Does anyone make a IR controllable speaker selector?

Any other ideas?

Thanks in Advance,

Steve

Just went through this exact same thing and the Xantech option is IT. Nothing else out there that I could find and any work-arounds just ended up costing way more.

I gave him a MX3000 and MRF250, at $1800 with programming, that he can wander through the house with, which he loved, rather than spending half that on volume controls, go figure.

IF he still wants to use his receiver, you can try the ELAN VSE electronic volume control. Bury it behind the speaker and place the IR receiver in the speaker frame.
Volume up, dwn and mute + it will pass IR back to the source equipment.

You could also use a Speakercraft easy-6, seeing that you already have the IR receivers. An easy 6 and a multichannel amp would work.

You can use Elen VSE electronic volume controls. If you put an IR receiver in each room then you can send it's output to each individual volume control. We have done this a couple of times and have never had any probems with it.

Niles used to make a speaker selector box that was IR controllable. Don't know if they still do or not. All I remember is that it the box came bare with like 2 cards in it and then you could add a card for each set of speakers over the initial 2 that you needed.

Robbie S

Xantech makes a six speaker pair switcher, the 686-10 that can switch 6 speaker pairs on or off individually or in groups. Also Knoll Systems has a piece that may help--[Link: knollsystems.com]

Actually you're in better shape than I was, I didn't have IR in each room thus no real solutions.

Marantz ZS5300 but you would need two of them.

Xantech also has an IR-controllable speaker level volume control. Volume is stepped up and down by relays connecting through transformers, very like a rotary volume control. Works well. Commands include up, down, all up, all down, and preset at every level.