Acoustic Research Xsight Remote Controls, feel like you are losing control?
July 26th, 2010 by Lee R
So you just purchase a brand new HDTV and found out that you needed more to add to the experience. You decided you wanted to maximize the picture that you now have available, thus adding a Blu-ray player to your system. The picture was fantastic, and everything you could hope for. It seemed to lack something though, so you added a home theater system. Those gorgeous sounding boxes filled your ears and eyes with everything that you were hoping for. Now which remote was it to turn on which device?
As most of us discover the joys of owning your personal home theater we find almost everything is operated by a remote control, quickly amounting to a collection that sits neatly in a basket on the coffee table, or in a drawer of the end table. Rarely are they all in the same place at the same time. One of the remotes in the pile might even be a multi-device remote allowing you to punch in a series of 4 or 5 digit codes, sorting through the codes until you find just the right one for your device. Now that you have tamed half of the system you can settle into the couch, fingers exhausted.
Acoustic Research has introduced a few new soluti
ons to reclaim control of your home theater system and I recently had the opportunity to take the ARRX15G for a test drive. Their new X-sight remotes allow you to control up to either 15 or 18 device. The first is the ARRX15G Xsight Color which is capable of controlling up to 15 different devices also featuring a color LCD display and uses standard AA batteries. The second model, the ARRX18G Xsight Touch offers control of up to 18 different devices with a color touch screen LCD display, rechargeable battery system with charging dock, and an option to utilize RF (Radio Frequency) control with the optional ARRE433B RF receiver.
One feature of these remotes that really wowed me was the simple set up. Both Xsight remote controls offer easy set up using the on-screen display of the remote itself to will walk you through the different devices and add them to different macro functions such as Watch TV, Watch a Movie, Listen to Radio Etc. This is a process that few remotes that offer extensive control of your system include; usually this type of setup requires connecting the remote control to your home computer. However, if you prefer using your computer to program the remote control, that option is available. Acoustic Research offers the EZ-RC set up software allowing you to use a USB connection and follow a simple on-screen step by step set up guide on your computer. With this software your remote control’s programming information is stored directly on the EZ-RC website, so that you can make changes or add devices and not lose all of your programming information.
While using the remote controls I found them to be well balanced in the hand making it easy to navigate and operate with one hand. The back of the remotes is coated in a nice non-slip rubber ensuring the remote stays in your hand until you would like to place it down. I found that all of the buttons also had a reasonable click to them allowing you to know that they had been pressed. Dedicated buttons are used to turn the system either All On (Hello) or All Off (Goodbye), which helps cut down on devices getting out of sync in the start up or close down procedures.
My time with the Xsight remotes was a pleasing experience. They are a very capable system control option that will help you get the maximum use and enjoyment from your home theater system.
