Anyone use these things? Xantech RAT1 Remote Auto Transformer.

I have a client with 2 A/V systems and a basic 6 zone audio system (Sonance 1230 and volume controls).

They use RTI T2+ controllers in the 2 AV areas... with 2 RTI RP6 units (linked together)...

One of the dist audio zones is the master bedroom. It has a basic volume control on the wall. Here, I've also given them a T2+ to control the bedroom TV (no AV system yet), and it can also turn on the preamp/1230 and control sources. But of course when they use the remote to turn on the audio system.... they can't use the volume buttons.. they have to use the VC on the wall.

I could easily put a Xantech motorized control in the wall... and with a RAT1, the bedroom T2+ could control the volume control.

It sounds great and easy to do... but I'm curious about how well the RAT1 works. If you use the MIRV1 volume controls... how well do they track what is happening on the RAT1?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

I've used both the RAT-1's and the MIRV. The RAT-1 works well in a problem-solving application like yours. The only problem I've had over the years is that the units occasionally forget their remote code group assignment and stop working. Reprogramming them corrects the problem.

I hate the MIRV. Slow, cheap looking, and generally a stupid product. Avoid it.

Thanks Theaterworks for the response... I've cancelled my demo MIRV1s.....

Now, this may exist, but I don't know of it:

I usually use keypads... but with the prevalence of "open floor plans" in our area... sometimes a decent multichannel amp and some VCs does the job perfectly well. Maybe one keypad for starting the system.... (but if there is a TV area in the heart of the "great room" I usually use an RF remote from RTI to control the house audio as well)

What I need is something like the RAT1 (but with multiple zones if possible), that can be IR/RS-232 controllable so I can adjust any zone's volume with a remote control, that ALSO communicates to/from electronic volume controls with cat5.

The volume controls don't need to be mechanical. Just make them go round and round like most AV receivers' volume knobs, and have a visual indicator (ie leds) that show volume.

The VC become essentially a user interface with feedback, but doesn't actually have to modulate the volume. They should be able to track changes very easily and quickly, they should look nice... simple but nice.... No expensive LCD needed, no clunky motors, no resistors/transformers to generate heat..

Is there an obvious product for this that I have somehow missed?

I was told just this morning that the RAT1 (and the MIRV?!?) are now discontinued...i'm not sure, but worth looking into.

RobZ

Niles used to have a box like you described but Its been discontinued a while now. Multiroom all in one boxes have gotten so cheap that its about the same money to do a GLoria, Russound, or Speakercraft MCZ66 as it was to do the goofy 6 zone volume control.

Plus the Xantech amps have attenuation comands built in to them now. Much better route to go now for what you describe.

RATs are acceptable devices for setting volume at speaker level if you need to share an fixed level amp channel to additional speakers...

Since you have dedicated channels of amplification for each zone, Xantech's RGC-11 preamps are nice little line level devices that will get the passive autoformers out of the signal path that suck up dynamics and sound quality that you are already paying for with the multi-channel amp.

They are also nice for subzoning extra pairs of speakers for a common zones where you have plenty of channels of amplification.
I use them on outdoor speakers where it is obviously a common zone, but I still want to set the volume levels in each area by how the space will be used.

I used RAT1s in an installation where the lighting control programmer told me that he could deliver RS232 commands to me, but couldn't deliver anything else. "Speakers" would be a single button on the lighting keypad.

Turns out that he could give me only two codes, one from a short push and one from a push and hold. I had made the dumb assumption that a push and hold would issue repeating RS232 commands. That didn't happen.

So I used a Xantech RS232IR, which I had planned to, and took his two codes. A short push became a RAT1 volume up (one notch) and push and hold became zero volume (volume goest all the way down). This is slow and clumsy but works. Because of the RAT1's available commands, I could program the system to come on at a particular volume.