Hear, hear! I'm always amused by threads where folks ask how they can get their "non-technical" wives to understand how to operate their a/v gear. Designing a pre/pro is technical; operating one is not.

I can tell you the line "If you can use a microwave, you should be able to us this home theatre system, honey ! [you moron!]" doesn't go over well. It's the dismissive message between the [lines] that in my experience starts an argument and cools any postive reception to "improving the sytem". I am trying a totally different tact -- and taking her very seriously.

I hope the entire HT industry takes UI and 'ease of operation' more seriously. Thing is I agree with her, there is loads of room for improving the 'ease of use' for the entire HT system (not just the pre-amp). I can personally vouch that this issue is affecting high-end AV/HT company revenues.

Also -- the VCR and Microwave UI has seriously evolved over the last few years. We have the VCR+, auto-sync clock -- there is nothing to program. The microwave has a extremely simple touch-screen interface and steam sensors that detect when food is hot. These products have truly evolved.

Stereo/HT systems, while it offers new sound technology, still is based on a very WEAK "system foundation". Would any pre-amp have the intelligence to KNOW the particular components attached and, taking into account the specs and features, be able to control them? Why aren't there FireWire/USB standards for connecting components to a pre-amp? Why can't you configure a pre-amp to my specific Monitor Audio Silver 3 speakers? I mean, the settings of "BIG speaker" and "Small speaker" are a little crude if you think about it.

I'm in the market for superior sound reproduction. I also want audiophile grade equipment that works together so that my family can ENJOY the HT system. That is the lacking ingredient. I'm would be willing to pay for that.

BTW -- after reading about the Harmony Remote, I cancelled the order for the MX500. The Activity Centered approach to operating the system along with Open Standards (XML based) configuration were too promising to pass up.

I started a thread (with a poor subject line) about this in 'new product suggestions' some time back. I do think it's time the industry considered getting out of the old 'switch-box w/ gain control' preamp paradigm and looked into a more 'task oriented' UI.

I'd like to see a pre/pro that came pre-set to common tasks but allowed me to add new things like 'Watch TiVo' or 'Listen to DVD-A', where each 'task' would include mode and signal routing / processing preferences. Also the ability to remove the default tasks is critical, since part of simplicity is removing options that are not applicable.

I'm not saying it would be easier for ME to set up, but that it would give me the tools I'd need to make it easier for others that use the system. In a way, on a day to day basis it would be easier for me too, but someone (me) would need to customize it to see the most benefit.

I mean, the settings of "BIG speaker" and "Small speaker" are a little crude if you think about it.
Off the top of my head, (and a lot more software to integrate). That’s an intriguing remark. Think how many speaker choices are really larger than small, but not truly wise to set to large consistently for all feeds. (My Beethoven’s) Could more customization of freq. Response range divided into a dial-in subdivided for 3 zones. (fronts/center/surrounds) get more out of the average system? Or is the broader control of ‘large/small’ close enough? Any further 'dialing in' only realizing extremely minimal returns?
Could this have the potential to optimize individual speaker setups to a greater degree?
But I see, a headache coming on, integrating added variables. Another sliding scale variable memory eater.

Big and Small are a misnomer. It's really just s boolean value to determine whether to apply a high pass filter to the speaker in question - the variable frequency of the associated HPF give a reasonable degree of control as to the actual capabilities of the speaker.

How is the High PF variable? It's not set at a pretty firm cutoff?

Charlie, how would the task oriented interface differ from the current one? Right now, if you have all of your inputs plugged into their respective spots on the processor, simply changing the active input from Xbox to DVD (for example) would bring all of the corresponding inputs into play. Granted, many pieces of equipment (cough, cough) could use renameable input labels to make this better, but...

The fly in this ointment is usually the display (as in television) where there's an input selection on a device not directly controlled by the processor is required.

Right now, macros do the trick, nicely. As you describe in your activity concept, I execute my macro for Tivo, and the processor changes to Sat/TV mode, my TV to the s-video input, and the remote ends on the Tivo device setting. How is that different?

I do have to admit that the whole shooting match would be greatly simplified (you still have to program those remotes for whatever random configuration of equipment you put together) if the devices could talk to eachother, though. That right there could lead to the macros being created by the AV interface behind the scenes, leaving geeks like us to customize the defaults and everyone else to just use without confusion.

--Mike

SLL: You get to pick what frequency the HPF rolls off at. (40, 60, 80.....)

Llamas: The difference is subtle, but IMO important. For instance I could have a Pioneer 47ai connected to the preamp and then begin creating a set of tasks like this:

DVD-Video: Route component video in 1 to video out, Route optical input 3 to all digital outputs and bitstream decoder and then out the audio outputs, using first of the following modes that will work on the bitstream. Set volume to current setting or -40, whichever is less. Use the following level trim values [][][]. ......

DVD-Audio: Route component video in 1 to video out, Route optical input 3 to all digital outputs and the 8 channel audio input to the audio outputs via the analog BM and gain section.

CD-Music: Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah.....

It's pretty similar to what a remote does, but rather than issue a ton of commands from a 3rd party device put the brains to do it in the pre/pro. You've already paid for a CPU, memory, interface - use it.

I guess what I'm getting at is that in this age of multi-format DVD players, HT PCs and X-Boxes merely selecting an input is often not enough to tell the Pre/Pro what you wish to do with the signals the box will generate.

Many of hte Motorola based pre/pros even try to figure out which device is outputing a signal for you, and while it's nice I don't think it's required.

IMO it's pretty intuitive that to listen to 'Riding with the King' on DVD-Audio one should turn on the pre/pro, select 'DVD-Audio', turn on the DVD-Audio player, insert disk, press play. I don't know anyone who can read that wouldn't get it done without trouble - not true with some current setups.

One of the nice features about the 4.5 year old Sony TA-E9000ES that I had, was that it would automatically cycle through the physical inputs connected to a source looking for the signal. Something like coax then opt then analog was the hiarchy. And, that process was even faster than the 950 simply figuring out what the digital source type is on a source it already knows what the physical connection is.