Bottlehead Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: ToolGuyFred on January 20, 2011, 02:39:04 AM
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Has anyone seen a kit for a remote-controlled passive preamp?
All my most-used audio gear comes with an infra-red remote control, so it would be nice to have one on the preamp too. I was thinking of something which can select source, adjust volume and have an output suitable to connect to the first grid of my Foreplay.
If not, then:
I have seen an application using an existing remote control with a Pic microcontroller. Controlling relays for stepped attenuator, inputs and outputs should be comparatively trivial, maybe even add a display screen of some sort. Anyone out there tried anything like that?
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Check this out: http://www.diyhifisupply.com/node/177
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diyhifisupply.com%2Ffiles%2Fpictures%2Fdiyhs-remote.jpg&hash=dac5e95ea2b1d01c81891cc7f8ab4555abc69938)
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Get ahold of John Chapman at Bent Audio:
http://www.bentaudio.com/index2.html
I'm sure he's got something that will work for you!
Mike
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What Mikey said, at VSAC 2008 Bent Audio had a very long table full of remote volume controls and input selectors.
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OOOOOHHH! Bent Audio. I want their controller bad. It's just too trick.
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbentaudio.com%2Fprodpics%2Ftrik-ang-s.jpg&hash=4ce1f381532dcd8a881d23a440357f9b800f086b)
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I have experimented with passives quite a bit (Placette, Creek, EVS Ultimate Attenuators, home-made, etc.), but was never able to really replace my preamp. The slight sound improvement (if any) just didn't justify giving up the convenience of a preamp. Then a few months ago I purchased a used Bent Audio Tap-X TVC. Holy shamoly! Using it resulted in a sense of ease and smoothness that I found beguiling. After much comparison with my Foreplay III I settled on the Tap-X in my system (please don't ban me from this board - I know it's heresy). As I understand it, this might not work for everyone, depending on the gear involved, but going from a Wavelength Brick (tube) to my Paramounts I am completely satisfied at this time. Bent no longer sells the Tap-X, but they appear to still sell the parts necessary to make one. Call or email John Chapman and ask him - he's a very nice guy. Oh yeah, the Tap-X has remote volume and balance.
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No problem here, the TAP is really nice. We had a TVC prototype around for quite a while and it had certain sonic qualities in the treble that were a little better than the FPIII in my system while I found the bass in my setup to be a little better with the FPIII. John is indeed one of the nicest guys in the business.
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Thanks guys. The Bent Audio stuff looks really nice.
My old school friend and Saturday-night drinking buddy is also a control engineer and has just got tooled up with all the PIC development gear (I notice one of the Bent boards is sporting a PIC chip) so I'll ponder for a while whether to go ready-built or develop something exactly to my own requirements.