Worst remote nomination...

The ultimate Worst Remote is the one that controls the Wadia 7 transport and Wadia 9 DAC. It is a heavy metal affair about 6x4x1 inches. Don't drop it on your toe!

The roughly 20 buttons are decent sized but arranged in a rectangular grid. All are the same size and color. The labels are low contrast and hard to read. This layout is totally un-ergonomic.

I have two of these (one each came with the transport and DAC) but only use them to program my universal remote.

Emm Labs CDSD hands down. Unit sounds terrific however.

I second the EMM Labs CDSD. Heavey, shiney and gets slippery. Buttons are tiny and all the same, with no logic to the layout. Amazingly, it is machined from solid aluminum billet, you can still see the tool path marks on the inside.

The unit it controls however sounds fantastic. I just use my universal remote and have packed the EMM remote away.

I'll nominate any remote that doesn't have real rubberized/metal buttons, and uses those horrible bubble dents instead. Got one for the PS Audio Power Director and one for my Gefen 4x1 HD DVI switcher.

Honorable mentions in my house also go to the dCS Delius remote (weighs a ton and has a funky button you have to press to control the Purcell that times out before I figure out what other button to press--bonus points because the funky button is located where the bloody power on/off should be) and the Esoteric DV50S remote (which requires the use of a jeweler's screwdriver to change the batteries and does not include a power on/off function--although I can't imagine why anyone would actually want to turn a piece of gear on or off via remote). *sigh*

Mezmo wrote:
>>So I've got the lights dimmed to watch a movie (main outs running from the HT receiver into Line 2 on the preamp to integrate the two systems, with volume dialed in at 0 gain on the pre) and I, not surprisingly, want to dim the display on the pre -- viola, the reciever is muted.<<

I was wondering why you don't use the SSP input on the Line 2 since this is the HT bypass function? It esentially puts the Line 2 to "sleep" so you won't get all of the weirdness that your experiencing with your setup.