Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I ordered this the day of the release and somehow received a previously opened box, someone at Amazon decided to check the system out and try and re-package it to look unopened. However it's pretty obvious when the all the plastic sleeves that the remote and extenders were packed in had torn tape and wrinkles, cords not packed right, etc., not to mention the whole box being re-taped shut.
On to the system. Well there were a lot of things to like about the concept of this system, however Cisco must have outsourced the implementation because it pretty much failed across the board.
The touchscreen is inaccurate (yes I calibrated it) and unresponsive at times, though the QWERTY screen had nice size keys you have to type slow for it to register letters properly, and sometimes it would highlight the letter showing you pressed it, but the letter wouldn't actually register in the text box. You cannot power down the remote besides removing the battery. The remote failed to find the other components even though they show up properly in the packaged EasyLink software. The remote showed 2/3 signal when 3 feet away from my Draft-N DB router, and 1/3 signal when roughly 25 feet away. Both the remote and extenders failed to access my shared music folders, and would return the message "System Busy" nearly instantly like it never even tried to connect.
On to the extender with the display. Although Cisco claims that you can setup your system sans PC software, it completely failed to do so. The use of the side buttons to control the unit through the display is cumbersome and not well planned. Since they are universal you have to press one before the on-screen graphics are displayed to show you the action assigned to each button. When you do this, the system performs whatever function is assigned to it, so it may exit or skip, since you can't see the assigned action until you press it first. The button graphics at times block the left 1/3 of the text box used for searching and to enter your network password. Therefore you are unable to change to the proper letter because you can't see what your doing. The volume scroll pad around the power button is also poorly designed, you have to touch and leave your finger there for a second before you can scroll otherwise it doesn't register the move. You also have to scroll really slow so it can keep up, oh and don't accidentally press the power button while your doing it (the scroll pad is quite small). The backlight behind the power button is also really bright and annoying especially the orange when powered off at night. If they were smart they would have put the same scroll pad from the remote which also has up, down, left, right and center click, instead of the worthless power/volume setup.
On the extender without a display, it makes no sense to ship a secondary remote with it that has anything besides power, play/pause, volume and prev/next. instead they ship a full remote identical to the secondary that comes with the displayed unit beside changing the color of the home button, it's absolutely pointless beyond the simple controls I listed above since you can't see what you're doing. Unless they expect people to memorize the interface or something else ridiculous.
Overall, after hours of wasted time all I got was some Rhapsody out of the one unit with the display, I hooked up some bookshelfs to it and it sounded good for what it is. The PC control interface was pleasing to the eyes, it displayed each zone and would show album art within each zones frame. It was also easy to link the extenders into party mode with 1 or 2 mouse clicks, however it does take 30 seconds or so for the units to sync to one-another. Otherwise the system as a whole was a great concept, but complete failure. The remote interface was simple and easy to navigate, but if Cisco can't fix the touch interface and address its sluggishness via firmware, what good is it. Cisco stripped any sort of diagnostics or manual setup from both the extender/remote menus, as well as the PC software, so when their proprietary setup doesn't work you have no work-around. I used their walk-through install (after manual attempts failed) which includes a self-diagnostic, and according to it all my components installed properly, well so it said. And yes I re-installed and tried again, I also checked that my firmware was up to date, still no inter-system com's, nor access to my music.
Well that was my experience, not too swift! For a $1,000 I expect a proper product that works as designed, not with the major failures and flaws. These days processing power is cheap enough that no new device with empty memory/storage should run so poorly, I can't imagine it handling any sizable music collection without freezing. For this Cisco wasted enough of my time that I felt compelled to type my first product review.
Please remember you mileage may vary, I hope for others sake that my hardware was in many ways defective.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Cisco Linksys Wireless Home Audio Premier Kit--Includes One Director with IR Remote, One Player with IR Remote, and One Controller
Experience your music all around your home - sounding great and at your control, without wires. The Premier Kit is a great way to start your Linksys by Cisco wireless home audio system in any two areas of your home. It includes one director/wireless-N music player with IR remote control, one player/wireless-N music extender with IR remote control and one controller/wireless-N touchscreen remote.
