Remote mayhem with two Devialet Experts

[amaynard]

Anyone else had issues with remotes when running two Devialet experts in adjacent rooms?

I've just purchased a 120 for a second system, and have been using an Expert 200 for the past few years. However, the remotes do not uniquely pair and stay paired.

I've had various mis-pairings occur - the most common being that both remotes pair with the same amp (which is incredibly frustrating as you're trying to control the amp in one room, and whoever is listening in the other room has their amp volume/input changing outside their control)

I've also had remotes pair, then lose their pairing.

What I haven't managed to achieve is each amp with its own uniquely paired remote.

There must be a workaround to this - how otherwise do dealers demo multiple amps in the same facility.

It's been a while since I posted this (and thanks for all the replies) -- thought I'd post an update though as I've finally found a fix to the problem, thanks to ChatGPT! (Which probably means that someone else discovered this somewhere):

The trick is to partially shield the antenna on the bottom of the amplifier that picks up the RF signal from the remote -- this is the "E" shaped circuitry that you can see through the acrylic window under the amp with the red LEDs.

I used a very Heath Robinson proof of concept using tin foil and electrical tape, covering part of the "E" -- the RF pickup is extremely sensitive to just how much of the antenna is shielded and so some trial and error is needed. And a more elegant solution would be to cover in partially shielding tape (such as something with copper wires sparsely running through it) so that you can change the attenuation with multiple layers.

But I now have two Devialets that I can control separately, without the remotes randomly repairing with the other amp!