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Your thoughts on preamp/processors

Ok, what are your thoughts on this?

I have a EAD Ovation. I love it, it sounds awesome, looks great, but is a huge pain. If you are not familiar with EAD, their products do not have any buttons on the front.

So here is the issue, the batteries in the remote died while I was away on a business trip and when my wife put new batteries in, it dropped all the codes. Now it does nothing, not even volume up or down. I contact noble and they offer a remote for $275. While I debated on this, I bought a harmony universal figuring I can use it in another room if it didn't work. I was surprised, but they had EAD Codes in their online database.

So, now the unit works with the universal remote. However now my wife is even more confused by the system and it seems everytime I am away on business, she cannot operate this component. I have a 3 year old and he has no patience, this only frustrates the whole situation as she is trying to figure it out, he is bugging her in the background.

Do I just ditch the thing and get a new unit with a volume knob and traditonal buttons on the front?

Is there anyhing that can compare to the sound quality?

Is it smart to buy a unit that does not have HDMI?

I do have a seperate 2 channel music room, but even with that, I find I listen to quite a bit of music in this room as well as DVD Concerts.

I have FOCAL SPEAKERS, HD DVD Player and Pioneer Plasma in the room where the Preamp processor will go...

Sorry that was so long...help me out here.
musiqlovr
mumbles
83 posts
 
mx-3000 remote would allow you to keep what you like.
Mom,Dad,kid skins, all rooms.
Just got one myself, have not started recording macros yet. Demo has custom user settings just as you described needing. Check out surfremote.com, they did me right, are authorized dealers, $600 with their coupon next to the list price.
kennyt's avatar
kennyt
1,226 posts
 
I am surprised she can't get the Harmony to control things right, I own four of them (659/880/890/1000) and my wife and step daughters can easily control my systems with them (main rig ios a Meridian 861/98 with six sources plus cable, PS3...) did you set it up right?

Which harmony remote did you buy?
musiqlovr OP
54 posts
 
Well, I guess I should have added, that I also purchased a HD DVD Player and my Pioneer TV is auto sensing input. Problem is the TV will not pick up the HDMI source right away. The player is killer, but it takes awhile to load and thus does not output signal right away...so there is another source of frustration. I think I am going to call Harmony and see if they can help, maybe there is a way to delay switching the tv input?

Thanks for the help so far. Anyone have any luck with a different preamp processor that sounded as good?
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
the Harmony 1000 remote is a chunk of crap, everytime I have had to call for an issue or even when I spoke to a rep at the NYC audio show last May, they all agreed quietly that the remote is a rushed product with too many flaws to argue its quality or reliability.
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