Why do most audiophile pre-amps not come with a remote?

[Chu]

I've been recently pondering various options to go down the speaker route, and something that's been incredibly frustrating is that a lot of high end pre-amps I see reviewed in various rags don't come with a remote.

In fact, thinking about head-fi, pretty much every single headphone amp I've seen advertised that could double as a pre-amp lacks a remote.

Thinking about how I personally listen to music, this just strikes me as incredibly odd. Does your average speaker-file have no problems with having to get up every time they want to change the volume?

I can see how a digital volume control could cause all sorts of SQ problems, but really it's pretty trivial to do this mechanically, with most of the added cost being an isolated power section for the motors.

This is a deal-breaker for me, and I'm having trouble seeing how it's not a deal breaker for a lot of others.

 

[Jolida302]

Because the circuitry for a remote downgrade the preamp sound and add a supplementary cost.

 

[tom hankins]

I am not sure where you have been looking but almost every audio company that build preamps have remotes. As far as headphone amps that use remotes, I am using a Singlepower Transparency in my speaker system and it also uses a remote. I have owned or auditioned preamps from the following companies over the last few years and they all came with remote.
Ayre
BAT
Aesthetix
VTL
Singlepower
Musical Fidelity
Audio Research
Mcintosh

If you want any help in a certain price range drop me an email. Maybe I have heard or owned something that you could use.

 

[krmathis]

Wonder where you have been looking.
Cause with few exceptions the pre-amplifiers I have been looking at all have remote controls.

 

[Zorander]

If you are talking of headphone amps that double up as pre-amps, then yes, most of them come with no remotes. Dedicated stereo pre-amps however almost always come with remotes.

 

[mulveling]

It's true that many top headphone amps make awesome preamps, but are without the convenience of a remote.
Many remote-controlled preamps, short of the "hifi exotic" price range, use a motorized Alps Blue pot. It's probably the best off the shelf solution that doesn't require tons of custom work. The rest of them use some sort of digital logic control for attenuation. The alps is a decent pot, but it's not exactly reassuring to see a $15 pot (cost of the non-motorized version) when you're looking at amps over $1500.

Many builders of headphone amps would consider the above solutions as compromised with regards to sound quality, and since remote volume control isn't nearly as important in a headphone amp, they choose to use a higher quality (and hence non-motorized) pot or stepped attenuator.

Now that Singlepower Transparency Tom has uses a motorized stepped attenuator, which is quite expensive, and I'd imagine unusual even at its $4K price. The payoff is NO compromise of sonics (obvious when you hear it) OR convenience.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Well, back in MY day we didn't have remotes! We had to change channels ourselves and there were no fancy automatic cueing arms on the turntables. We had to do it ourselves.

And you know something? We liked it that way. I walked to school both ways, in the 78 degree weather here in Southern California. I used to wear an onion on my belt, because that was the style.

(You might also want to look at Conrad-Johnson preamps, the newer ones. My CJ preamp doesn't have a remote. And I like it that way.)

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif And you know something? We liked it that way. I walked to school both ways, in the 78 degree weather here in Southern California. I used to wear an onion on my belt, because that was the style.

Why onion?

 

[Todd R]

Add to the list: deHavilland

"Custom made relay actuated analog computer controlled 32 step stepped attenuator with or without remote control"

I'm really enjoying my UltraVerve, sounds awesome!

 

[Carmantom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd R /img/forum/go_quote.gif Add to the list: deHavilland "Custom made relay actuated analog computer controlled 32 step stepped attenuator with or without remote control" I'm really enjoying my UltraVerve, sounds awesome!

Ah! Any thing Kara makes is heavenly.