It is funny how your tastes change as you get older. To me, few things now seem more pornographic than a case full of fine watches from makers like Vacheron Constantin or Patek Philippe. Unfortunately, in my chosen field, we get few products that inspire the same reaction. The sole exception that comes immediately to mind is a table cluttered with audio/video control keypads from Audio Design Associates sitting in a nearby office.

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ADA offers a wide variety of keypads and remote controls, including this beautiful brass wireless unit.  (Click image to enlarge)

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While most makers of whole-house audio/video equipment stamp out thousands of generic-looking keypads every year, ADA provides control interfaces that have a handcrafted, exclusive feel. Brass, chrome and sleek Eurostyle polymers predominate. You can have your keypads wired or wireless with buttons illuminated in the colors of your choice. You can even have a tiny LCD video monitor in the keypad to tell you what is on or give you a quick look at who is ringing the doorbell. And like an almost unfathomably complicated moon-phase chronograph watch with a day/date/month display, ADA’s products offer a dazzling array of capabilities.

The latest in ADA’s long, long line of whole-house audio/video products is the Suite 16, which can take sound and picture from up to 16 source devices (such as DVD, CD, satellite receiver, etc.) and distribute it to as many as 16 zones. Your installer can remove the video module and insert an extra audio module to increase Suite 16’s audio capacity to 32 zones. In each zone, you can select any of the 16 sources you want to see and/or hear, regardless of what is selected in the other zones. Each zone offers separate on/off, volume, mute, bass and treble controls.

Those fortunate enough to need audio and video in more than 32 rooms need not worry that they will have to leave some rooms without electronic entertainment—an installer can link up to six Suite 16 systems together to distribute those 16 sources to as many as 96 zones. You will not need a roomful of amps, either, since ADA offers one that handles up to 16 zones (or 32 rooms) in a single rack-mount chassis.
You can control each source device straight from the keypad. When you are listening to a CD, for example, just touch the track skip button on the keypad and you will advance to the next song—even if the room you are in happens to be all the way across the house from the CD player.

Suite 16 also offers too many nice extra features to list. A few of my favorites are maximum volume control for each zone, to keep the kids from turning it up too high; party mode, which sets multiple zones to the same source so your CD player can be heard throughout the house; and fixed- or variable-level output so you can feed any of the sources into a recorder or into a surround-sound system in one of the zones.

I do not know of a manufacturer that can match ADA’s selection of control keypads. Not only do you have several keypad options, you can get them in white, bone, black, brass or chrome, and ADA offers custom finishes, too. Your keypad choices start with a small, single-gang model with basic controls, including forward, reverse, play, pause, volume, source selection and off (selecting a source turns the zone on).

From there, you can move up to a larger model that adds a 10-digit keypad, an alphanumeric readout, and bass and treble controls. This model not only offers greater functionality, it looks more stylish. Multicolor LEDs behind each button illuminate the buttons in your choice of seven colors, or in any combination of colors. This keypad is also available in a wireless remote version, and in a wireless tabletop version with an internal, rechargeable battery. One caveat—some members of your family may find this keypad intimidating since it has so many buttons and functions. In situations that demand simplicity, I recommend the smaller, more basic keypad.

ADA’s ultimate keypad includes all of the features listed above, plus a small video monitor and a set of tiny buttons that lets you navigate DVD player menus.

The keypad-strewn table I mentioned earlier also currently holds a plethora of accessory modules that give Suite 16 special capabilities. One is a paging module that lets you page any room in the house through a microphone that mounts next to the keypads. You can isolate a page to a certain room, or to a group of rooms, and you can also exclude any room or rooms from the page. There is also an optional doorbell module, which sounds a chime through the speakers in any zones you choose whenever a visitor presses the doorbell. The module can switch any video monitor in the home over to one or two security cameras when someone rings the doorbell.

The Suite 16 main unit does not look like much—just a black panel with small LEDs that tell which inputs, audio zones, and video zones are active. The LEDs are too tiny to tell you much at a glance, but they do continue the rich ADA tradition of providing plenty of flashing lights to impress your guests. The only other features on Suite 16’s front panel are a nine-pin RS-232 port that lets your installer program Suite 16 through a laptop, and an on/off switch.

Speaking of your installer, he or she is likely to find Suite 16 relatively easy to place into your home. ADA systems used to employ exotic cable with countless conductors, but they have now switched to readily available, inexpensive Category 5 wire. Anywhere there is a Cat-5 connection available, your installer can put in a zone of Suite 16.

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The main unit is packed with flashing lights and is sure to impress visitors to your equipment closet.  (Click image to enlarge)

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You can expect first-class sound quality, too, from Suite 16. I have heard many ADA products in the last 10 years. All, including Suite 16, share a warm, lush, detailed sound, which I guess is what ADA head designer Albert Langella goes for. I go for it, too.

I could go on for pages about what Suite 16 does and how well it does it. Do not bother reading more about it; find a local Audio Design Associates dealer and check it out for yourself. If your home needs a large, highly capable multiroom audio/video system,
I cannot imagine that you would find any flaw in Suite 16.

DESCRIPTION
Multiroom/multizone audio/video system. Distributes line-level audio and video from up to 16 source devices to up to 16 zones (or 32, depending on configuration). Requires separate amplification for audio.

DIMENSIONS
5.3 x 19 x 20 inches (hwd)

CONNECTIONS
Basic configuration includes 16 analog stereo audio inputs and 16 analog stereo audio outputs. Video module adds 16 component video inputs and outputs. Additional audio module adds 16 more stereo audio inputs; additional video modules allow S-video or component video switching. Multiple 12VDC trigger outputs on two nine-pin D-sub connectors. Page input and AC/DC trigger outputs on screw-terminal block connectors. RS-232 input on front.

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: Varies considerably, depending on application. Base unit with 16 zones, $3,700. Keypads start at $249 each.
CONTACT: 914-946-9595 www.ada-usa.com