Worst remote nomination...

My Audio Research preamp remote gradually got to the point where I couldn't turn the volume up or down. I knew the batteries were still good so I thought another possibility could be the battery terminals and the contacts. They didn't look corroded but that doesn't mean anything. I took a scuff pad that I use for scuffing paint before painting and scuffed the terminals and the contacts. The spring type contacts will tear up the pad a little but keep scuffing. A brillo pad or steel wool would probably work also. Blow out the debris and put the batteries back in. The difference in power is incredible. I've done three or four problem remotes and the difference is night and day. I wish I'd thought of this years ago instead just a few weeks ago.

Classe remotes are ludicrous. I have them for the SSP75 and the CDP-.5. They're all metal, heavy as rocks, and are sufficient to damage wooden furniture with the slightest bump. Even worse, almost all of the buttons are the same size, they are arranged in grids, and they are not backlit. Nor is there any means of distinguishing them in the dark, although a precious few are larger than the others. (The CDP remote is particularly laughable.) Fortunately I have blasted all of it into the Marantz touchscreen remote, which I have been able to program successfully. Now eleven of the twelve are packed away in boxes...

The only one that's left out is the one to my Counterpoint SA-11. Unfortunately, it uses a completely different encoding mechanism, so it CANNOT be learned by modern remotes. It has an effective angle of incidence that is almost pointlessly narrow, and it doesn't have a lot of range. Perhaps I'll have to try Jbrvo's trick.

Believe it or not, but I guess that I had reel-to-reel deck Otari MX5050 BII with remote controll that I used to connect with wires in rear pannel of the deck. It was the size of pocket cassette player and had buttons to rewind, play, fast-forward, memory reset and speed selection.

Fine, fine, laugh at my pain....(I sure do).

Recently I went to a local high-end shop and was sitting in the "good" room, waiting for the guy I wanted to speak with to finish with someone else. I picked up the remote to a $38,000 CD player and started to laugh. The other guy who worked there came by and asked me what was so funny; I said "Feel this." and gave him the remote. It was so solid and so more substantial than any remote I'd ever held before, "You hold that and you immediately understand that whatever it is that it controls is something you'll never be able to afford." Hell, the cables in the room cost more than both my cars.