Is Remote Control Important?

remote is important - you don't know how much you'll like it until you have it, then won't want to do without anymore

I've owned a Blue Circle BC21 preamp which doesn't have a remote for almost a year. I guess the remote would be convenient and that's probably why Gilbert Yeung built one in to the newer units, but I've found that I can get around it since I usually listen only at 9 o' clock or somewhere between 8 and 9. I don't change the volume much so it'a not an issue for me. However, for my home theater I couldn't imagine living without my RC2000 mkII.

I imagine that it's a rare audiophile who doesn't trade some measure of sonic performance for convenience. After all, are your cables welded to your components, or do you allow yourself the flexibility to easily change them out? Why have a volume control? If you were really serious wouldn't you just solder in and out a single set of resistors every time you wanted to change level? A source selector switch on a preamp is clearly a source of sonic degradation. If sonics was paramount, then wouldn't you cut your welded interconnects and weld on the interconnects from the new component? You can see where I'm going with this. Clearly convenience does play a factor.

Well said, Onhwy61. Not to mention soldering the components AC wires directly to the service panel which is no less than 6 inches away that has nothing else soldered to it.

So much for the ivory tower syndrome.

Now hold on, guys. Before you put me in the ivory tower category, please realize that I thought that we, as audiophiles, were striving for the "ivory tower" of audio. I agree that if we can get the performance we want, with a remote control included, that is great. In my case, I either couldn't afford that performance level w/remote, or it just couldn't be had w/remote. My main question was, would you pick a 2nd choice in performance, simply because it had a remote, and your 1st choice didn't. The question was posed because I saw an example in my friend, who sacrificed huge levels of performance, because the remote was the most important thing for him. I have noticed a sentiment toward this idea on this site, and was wondering how deep it goes. Of course, I realize that some things are done in the name of convenience in all equipment, such as some of you mention like interconnects. But I think that skirts the issue. I am wanting to find out how much influence the mass market, Home Theater, and extraneous bells and whistles is having on our hobby. Since the ubiquitous remote control is the number one feature in the low-to-mid fi category, it is a good guage. At one time, the presence of a remote control simply screamed "mid-fi". No serious audiophile would take any component seriously that was equipped with one. Now it seems that many audiophiles wouldn't take a component seriously that does not have one. Perhaps another question would be appropriate here. Do you believe that the remote control adds cost, and degrades performance at it's price point? And are you willing to accept those negatives, simply because you don't want to get up off the couch?