[Andolink]

[I originally posted this in the "Headphone Amps (full size)" forum but it's probably more appropriate here]
 
Other than Audio-gd and a few very high end headphone amp makers, emplyment of this not terribly complicated technology seems to be extremely rare.
 
Why so?
 
It woud seem to me that the huge added convenience of remote volume control combined with the absence of negatives such as sound degradation would make this feature much more widely available.

 

[watchnerd]

Unless you're using your headphone amp as a preamp, what's the use case?
 
When I'm listening to headphones I don't need a remote because I'm within arm's length distance of the volume knob.
 
I guess if you regularly listen to headphones when you're more than 5 feet away from the head amp, but this seems like a corner case.

 

[limpidglitch]

I'd like to turn the question on its head: why do some manufacturers keep on offering IR remote controls? it's a bit last century, isn't it?
 
A wi-fi based solution (using a smart phone or similar) offers much more convenience.

 

[castleofargh]

as one who uses the computer as source, I do the main volume setting once on the amp and then fine tune with the computer(+/-10db maybe depending on the music and mental state).  so if I was looking for a remote option, I'd be looking for one related to the computer, not the amp. like some stuff that let me control the player from a tablet or cellphone.
it may seem strange, but I'm not a huge fan of remotes. I feel like I've always had too many of those. anyway in a few years we'll be having the NSA,no apple siri, no, amazon's Alexa speaker thing to spy on us everywhere in exchange of making our lives super easy. and we'll just say "turn it down by 3db" while chewing on chicken wings. that's probably the future of everything.

 

[watchnerd]

   and we'll just say "turn it down by 3db" while chewing on chicken wings. that's probably the future of everything.

 
Yeah...and this is why all my speaker purchases are active from now on.
 
By the end of the year, I'll probably sell of my mono blocks and passive speakers.

 

[Andolink]

OK, so yeah maybe I am the poster boy for being "so Last Century".  I don't own a smart phone and I don't do computer audio.  I have a 10 foot headphone cable to my headphone amp which is connected to the CD player of my family room speaker gear.  
 
When I get comfortable in my listening chair 9 or 10 feet away from my gear it's a real nuisance to have get up and cross the room every time I want to make a fine volume adjustment (and I typically make many of those when I'm listening for the first or second time to a recording).
 
Up until recently everything has been fine because all the functions of my Audio-gd amp could be controlled remotely.  But recently the remote has given up the ghost and I've been surveying the scene for a domestically made amp (U.S. or Canada) with this convenient feature and been quite surprised at the almost complete nonexistence of remote volume control in headphone amps. 

 

[limpidglitch]

  OK, so yeah maybe I am the poster boy for being "so Last Century".  I don't own a smart phone and I don't do computer audio.  I have a 10 foot headphone cable to my headphone amp which is connected to the CD player of my family room speaker gear.  
 
When I get comfortable in my listening chair 9 or 10 feet away from my gear it's a real nuisance to have get up and cross the room every time I want to make a fine volume adjustment (and I typically make many of those when I'm listening for the first or second time to a recording).
 
Up until recently everything has been fine because all the functions of my Audio-gd amp could be controlled remotely.  But recently the remote has given up the ghost and I've been surveying the scene for a domestically made amp (U.S. or Canada) with this convenient feature and been quite surprised at the almost complete nonexistence of remote volume control in headphone amps. 

 
I sympathize. I don't either have a smart phone or a tablet or anything of that kind, and I'm also running an old operating system that developers slowly but surely are dropping support for. I've kept it like this for all this time because this is the way I like it, but I'm slowly starting to realize that I'll probably to change and start moving with the times in a not too distant future. I'm really not looking forward to it.
 
I do, however, using my ancient (in computer perspective) software and hardware, have a music server which I control using remote desktop. It's pretty nifty.

If you can't find a headphone amplifier with the feature you want, might there exist a standalone DAC that would suffice? 

 

[Andolink]

The

   
I sympathize. I don't either have a smart phone or a tablet or anything of that kind, and I'm also running an old operating system that developers slowly but surely are dropping support for. I've kept it like this for all this time because this is the way I like it, but I'm slowly starting to realize that I'll probably to change and start moving with the times in a not too distant future. I'm really not looking forward to it.
 
I do, however, using my ancient (in computer perspective) software and hardware, have a music server which I control using remote desktop. It's pretty nifty.

If you can't find a headphone amplifier with the feature you want, might there exist a standalone DAC that would suffice? 

The DAC in my CD player is perfect for my needs.  I just want a nice high quality balanced headphone amp to drive my HE-500's  that I can control from across the room like I'd been doing for the past 2 1/2 years with my Audio-gd NFB 6.  
 
I've considered trying to use a remote with learning capability and I have the codes from Kingwa at Audio-gd but, due to my gadget ineptitude, I have no idea how to do this.

 

[castleofargh]

  OK, so yeah maybe I am the poster boy for being "so Last Century".  I don't own a smart phone and I don't do computer audio.  I have a 10 foot headphone cable to my headphone amp which is connected to the CD player of my family room speaker gear.  
 
When I get comfortable in my listening chair 9 or 10 feet away from my gear it's a real nuisance to have get up and cross the room every time I want to make a fine volume adjustment (and I typically make many of those when I'm listening for the first or second time to a recording).
 
Up until recently everything has been fine because all the functions of my Audio-gd amp could be controlled remotely.  But recently the remote has given up the ghost and I've been surveying the scene for a domestically made amp (U.S. or Canada) with this convenient feature and been quite surprised at the almost complete nonexistence of remote volume control in headphone amps. 

it's not about judging you or anything. we don't doubt that your problem is real and annoying. but you were asking why there aren't more headphone amps with remotes, and you got as first 3 answers, 3 guys who would rather get alternative solutions to the problem. so maybe the market is simply following the demand?
now there are still some DACs and amps that have a remote controlled volume, so you're not in any impossible situation. but for sure the choice is limited.

 

[Andolink]

 
it's not about judging you or anything. we don't doubt that your problem is real and annoying. but you were asking why there aren't more headphone amps with remotes, and you got as first 3 answers, 3 guys who would rather get alternative solutions to the problem. so maybe the market is simply following the demand?
now there are still some DACs and amps that have a remote controlled volume, so you're not in any impossible situation. but for sure the choice is limited.

Clearly there is very little demand for remotely controlled headphone amps.  The few I've been able to find have either way more features than I need and want to pay for or they're exclusively  single-ended and my rig is set up for balanced operation only.
 
I'm already beginning to accept the inconvenience forced upon me by the death of my remote and it's turning out not to be as terrible as I thought-- but still it rankles.