 Both audiophiles are manufacturers of audiophile equipment, often lack interest to integrate an audiophile setup in the family home. Isn't it time for a change? Within a few weeks I heard about friends that had to clear their stereo from their living room. Which is sad and no, it wasn't because of the size of their loudspeakers. It was because of the family wasn't able to get the music playing. They are now using plastic wireless loudspeakers that are simply controlled by their smartphone and playing Spotify. Don't get me wrong when people find that satisfactory, who am I to criticise? But in these instances both men and their always men would have loved to keep their stereo in the living. When one of them visited my place recently with his Mrs, he wanted to hear my new PMC loudspeakers. He said, that's the way it should be. Of course he did. More remarkable was that his lovely wife agreed it sounded great. But it would be too difficult to operate. And that's where she was wrong. My reference set of 1A and B are replaced in the living room. And normally I use 1A for listening music. To do that the digital player, the DAC and the amplifier must be switched out of standby and the latter must be switched to the correct input. This normally would take a minimum of two remote controls. A grimoire or digital player can learn the amp's remote infrared codes that has keys to control a digital player. But I only use one programmable remote control, in my case the Logitech Harmony Elite remote. Unfortunately Logitech terminated the Harmony remotes. In the coming time I will try to find alternatives. For now, if you can't wait, there are still Harmony elites offered, both as new and as second hand. Logitech promised to keep supporting the product and even add IR codes to their database. Back to my Seto. I also have a surround setup in the living, plus Plasma TV, SetoBox, Apple TV, Google Chrome and Blu-ray player. Here the NAD AV receiver forms the heart of the system. Its left and right pre-outputs are connected to the RCA inputs of the air amp. This has the option of working as a power amp on inputs that are set to processor pass-through. So I can use the stereo setup for left and right channels of the surround setup. To watch TV, the AV receiver, the stereo amp, the SetoBox and the TV have to be switched on and have the right input selected. The Harmony Elite takes care of that. It was not cheap € 365 and, as said, it's out of production now. To make you more familiar with the world of remote controls, I dive into the secrets of universal remote controls. In later videos I will review remote controls I can find and like. All universal remote controls are equal, but some are more equal than others to paraphrase George Orwell. When you search the web for universal remote control, you see shiploads of remotes varying from € 15 to € 50 and more. Many amplifiers and AV receivers come with what I call multifunctional remote controls. They differ greatly from the Logitech I use. This is perhaps best explained by looking at the remote that came with my AV receiver. Although it has many buttons, there would not have been enough buttons to control all functions of the four devices it can control. So many buttons have double functions. The device selector has four buttons, amp, Blu-ray player, music player and tuner. When amp is selected, most buttons will control the AV receiver. That can be seen here. In the amp mode, these buttons call on the functions printed above the buttons. So button 1 will then select input 1, while the 0 button dims the display of the AV receiver. But if BD, MP or turn is selected, these numerical keys have the same functions as the numerical keys on the Blu-ray player, music player or tuner, while the volume control, mute and input selector control the AV receiver at all times, so that when, for instance, the Blu-ray is selected, these functions are always at hand. All other functions, again, are depending on the device choice, like the four-way selector here, the transport functions and the four colored buttons below it. Together with HDMI-CAC, you can control your setup with only this one control, provided that all the other gear uses the same IR codes. Universal remotes that come with an amp or AV receiver are limited to devices that use the same IR codes and although some code sets are used widely, like the Philips ones, truly universal they are not. The universal remote controls you find at amazon.com and the like differ from multifunction remote controls in that they usually support more sets of infrared codes. They come with a manual that contains a list of brands and devices and matching numerical codes that need to be entered to prepare the remote for your equipment. For the rest they function like multifunction remote controls. The problem with both multifunction and universal remote controls is that the family members still have to understand how to operate all the gear. To play music they first have to select the amp mode, switch on the amp and select the appropriate input, select the digital player mode and switch it on and now the digital player can be operated from the transport buttons while the volume can be set with the volume controls. To watch a DVD requires the amp function to switch on power and select the appropriate input, then switch to the TV function, switch on the TV and select the appropriate input and then select the DVD function, power it on and operate the transport buttons. Unless you have connected the DVD player over HDMI and have the CSC switched on. CSC controls the TV over HDMI so the TV will switch on automatically and switch it to the correct input when the DVD player is switched on. Unfortunately the cross brand compatibility of CSC is not perfect. Then if after watching the DVD they want to watch TV, they have to switch on the TV function, select the appropriate input and then select the setup box function, power it on and select the appropriate channel. It might be clear that there will be family members that don't understand the device selector, don't know what input to choose and so on. This leads to frustration and thus to potentially the banning of your stereo from the living. What they want is to press one button named play music or watch TV. This can be done perfectly with activity based remote controls, like products from Universal Remote Control, Sofa Baton and until recently Logitech Harmony. They all work roughly the same. When setting up they want to know the gear you are using and how you are using it. They then build a sequence of infrared instructions that take care of setting the equipment up for the activity chosen. I've used only several Logitech Harmony remodels. The early ones, before Logitech bought Harmony, used computer program on Windows or Mac. Current models use an app on iOS or Android. Recently so called control centers came to market. They are intended to be used together with your TV for they show their menus on the TV. This makes them less optimal for audio only use. An example is the Carvo Control Center and then there are very affordable pots like those by Broadlink that use iOS or Android devices in combination with a small infrared blaster and that work together with Amazon Alexis, Google Home and IFTTT. I will start testing one next week but don't expect the video right away. There are many options to replace all those remote controls laying around. But if you want your family to use your preferred equipment, go for an activity based remote. Over the coming months I will look for good solutions and test them with the goal to integrate high end audio equipment into the family. For if we don't our audio file inspirations might stand a small chance surviving. And on that bombshell we come to the end of this video. As usually there will be a new video next Friday at 5pm Central European time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to my channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media, it is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and let me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuis, thank you for watching and see you in the next video or on dhbproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.