Although somewhat trivial in electronics, designing a remote control unit was a bit tricky, because of its case. Since this would be a low-quantity product, for now at least, molding (or casting) was not the option. Nor was it to order some OEM high-volume production unit, programmed and printed for our needs.
So I settled on making it the way Audial chassis are made: by machining the aluminum. Since such a process shifts the price, I also settled on not forcing the people to pay for it, and I also decided to design one remote control unit for all Audial devices supporting remote control. So, those who do opt for it will need only one unit.
Thus, this RCU works with the amplifiers A20 and A21 (buttons on top, and there are additional buttons here to support the future multichannel (pre-)amplifier), and the upcoming Asta DAC (six buttons in the middle, which will also be compatible with other Audial future DACs supporting remote control). Three buttons at the bottom are reserved for other Audial future devices.
And here is where we are currently at. We will still shape it a bit, hoping to have it finally ready for shipping in January.
Thank you for the update concerning a remote for the A20 I was curious other than the remote you’re working on would existing a20 units work on a standard remote code for simple function volume up and down. Regards, Gary
All the A20 units shipped by now use standard Samsung codes. So, the Samsung remote control might work.
If it does, it could be fine, but as some might not want to have both their TV and amplifier triggered at once – we have been thinking about this for some time – we decided to change these codes for the A21 and for the future A20 units.
But the general idea with this remote control, of one unit working with many/most/all the current and future Audial devices supporting remote control operation, does not change, so we will use “reserved” buttons for previously shipped A20 amplifiers.
Also, I would have to apologize for this additional delay. We do work on this unit all the time, and as promised above, we did shape it a bit, and now it is a bit thinner (and thus more elegant). This implied the move from a previously used two AAA to a cell battery (CR2450).
Also, in addition to the aluminum machined, we started to work on a wooden remote control unit. (My better half liked this idea better from the start. 🙂 )
Both versions will be electronically the same, and only the exterior will be different.
I hope to have them both finished in one month.
And here is how the aluminum unit machining looks alike. It must be milled from the inside so the unit gets as light as possible.
I am happy to report that we finished some wooden remote control units, and now these are available for ordering.
Hope you will find this worth waiting for. As far as I am aware, this is the world’s first real wooden remote control.
We will publish more detailed information soon.
A bit of bad news is associated with A20 amplifiers shipped before April 2023. Namely, the remote commands stored in their firmware will ultimately require five special buttons for the input selection (one for each input), and we don’t have enough spare buttons here, so we will have to produce a small series of remote control units specifically for previously shipped A20. These input commands will be additional commands, so these units will include all the other buttons and commands you find on this “regular” unit.
So, for previous A20 owners, this will take a bit more patience, but as this special unit will take only a few minor differences, we will be faster with it.
And to clarify, we did not give up on the initial idea of an aluminum remote control. But, although we started working on it much earlier than on the wooden one, it is still not ready and it will not be before October.
And, to expose this process partially, one of the things that still has to be decided is the finish, and you can see below two of the prototypes, one entirely highly polished and another with a brushed upper side.