NightDayAudio
Member of the Trade
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2014
- Posts
- 95
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- 49
...... Yeah it is what is asked for, we don't tell our customers what we are giving them, they tell us what they want, we just break the cost down to bring the the feature to fruition at the cost (not at retail price).. The remote is a standard Apple remote, costing really only about 22 dollars or so, but people didn't want it. I can only assume it is because they already have this remote and don't want to add to the cost of the unit. I do like this feedback and i think opinions from you should definitely get considered so i ask if you have not already open a ticket and we can build more request to add this.
With all due respect, Manny, please point me to the source of the crowd-funded feedback from buyers where they wanted zero physical buttons on the unit to control it AND they wanted no factory remote included, thus requiring them to buy their own remote from a different company to do basic functions? I went looking on LHL forums and through the threads here... I don't see any comments like that.... I may have missed it entirely.... thus why I am asking....
It is my understanding that the decision to go remote only was only officially decided right before the video from Gaven, Larry et. al. was taped. Over the last few months, I've read through the threads on the LHL forum and here with fascination. Please just help me find where others advocated that there be zero buttons or means of controlling the unit on the chassis AND also advocating that no remote be included with the unit at the same time, when that was now the only means of controlling the unit. I genuinely would love to see all those requests.
along the same line of thinking, I just spent a little while trying to find a commercially available headphone amplifier that had zero physical controls on the chassis to adjust volume, select input, power on and off, etc. I couldn't find one. For those that also offered remote control capability with their units, I looked for one that was supplied from the factory without a manufacturer constructed remote control. Again, I can't find one. If there are examples out there, everyone please help me as I just haven't found them.... if there are none, there must be a reason for this, right?
Gavin even pointed out in the video that form must follow function. He was, of course, referring to the headphone connectors on the front versus the back.... but this is an even more basic and fundamental issue than the location of the connectors... Every design choice has consequences... while I personally think it is a monumental mistake to eliminate all physical controls on the unit for the sake of aesthetic (this is a DAC *and* a headphone amplifier, not just a DAC... you could maybe get away with it if it was a simple DAC with no remote volume control or preamp capability... but it's not), the flip side of that is if you make that design choice to go remote only for Vi DAC, you don't put the onus on the buyer to accommodate your choice by making them buy a dinky remote from an entirely different company to even be able to use your product!
Asking folks to have to buy an Apple remote for vanilla Pulse where a lot of buyers got the unit at a super duper inexpensive price is one thing.... understandable cost saving measure and there is still a way to control the unit (physical knob) if folks don't want to ante up and buy the 3rd party remote... but Vi DAC is not in the same price class as Pulse... it may share some of the same innards... but you are targeting an entirely different market and price class... and a buyer at that price class has different expectations than a $189 Pulse.... I can just imagine now the look on customers' faces when a dealer tells them that the >$4000 DAC they may want to consider purchasing can't be controlled out of the box unless they also go to the apple store and buy a remote to even be able to use the DAC/headphone amp.... instant fail and immediate no sale and move on to a different option....