grand concerto vs concerto

[IVB]

Given that I'll use CQC to control it all, and will never have a keypad in my house, does the grand concerto offer any value above & beyond the concerto?

 

[Steve]

Keypads are definitely 1 big thing, but there are others. Just quickly off the top of my head is paging. You can set Source 6 as a paging zone and adjust DND and page volume serially. And you never know if you may want to add a keypad or two, cause for the price they are pretty nice. While they can't be used a a touch screen per se, you can send text to them, so you can do things like send CID, Weather forecasts, etc. to them for a 'read only' display. I'm sure there are smaller improvements as well and the cost is not significantly higher for the Grand and its their latest and greatest while the regular will likely be discontinued in the not too distant future.

I will be at EHX talking to them next week if there are any specific questions, pictures or whatever you may want.

 

[Captain Caveman]

.. You can set Source 6 as a paging zone and adjust DND and page volume serially.

Cool. What paging system would be best suited for this? I don't suppose that it will replace an intercom system.

 

[Steve]

.. You can set Source 6 as a paging zone and adjust DND and page volume serially.

Cool. What paging system would be best suited for this? I don't suppose that it will replace an intercom system.

What I mean, is the GC acts as the paging system. You can send pages like from your PC (TTS) or Elk to any of your zones via the GC. You connect the source (PC, Elk) to Input/Source 6 and the audio will go to the zones set to receive it.

It is not a substitute for an intercom system for humans to communicate. The Russound and Compoint is much better for that.

 

[Sendero]

I'm curious why the Grand Concerto seems to be mentioned alot recently. What are the key diferences between it and the Russound CAM 6.6? They seem pretty similar but with the Russound at a lower point so I'm curious why the GC seems to be mentioned more. I'm sure there's something I'm missing here

 

[Steve]

I'm curious why the Grand Concerto seems to be mentioned alot recently. What are the key diferences between it and the Russound CAM 6.6? They seem pretty similar but with the Russound at a lower point so I'm curious why the GC seems to be mentioned more. I'm sure there's something I'm missing here

I will only state a few comparison facts, the rest really just comes down to a personal decision. The Grand is a new item, so some of its press may be due to that, but the facts are....

Starting with price...
CAM6.6T-S2 is $3,899 for the amp with 6 keypads
NV-I8GMS is $3,499 for the same configuration

To be fair, the CAM includes a single AM/FM tuner. For the GC, you would need to purchase the NV-T2DF whicj is a dual am/fm/weather tuner for $799. So the GC would be $400 more with the tuner, but it is a more capable dual tuner with weather. Or, look at the CAM6.6-S1 which is $3,249 and does not have a tuner, but has inferior S1 keypads. I do not see a configuration with no built in tuner and S2 keypads. Keep in mind these are retail prices and not ebay or dealer prices, so you exact costs may vary, but retail, or 'advertised' price is the only true comparison.

Other items...
The GC is the first system to use an 8 line capacitive OLED keypad. There are no membrane keys to stick, wear, etc. It is a flat glass screen. The technology comes from the kitchen appliance technology. Look at things like the GE profile line and you will see what the keypads look/feel like. They are very clean and elegant looking and have 8 lines of text that you can even send custom info too, like caller ID, temperatures, reminders, etc (assuming you use NuvoNet and hooked up to an HA system). I personally think the keypad is really nice, but others may like the more traditional ones better.

The GC is twice as powerful. It has 80 watts of clean Class D digital power per zone. The CAM is 40 watts of analog power.

The GC contains the same 6 amplified zones as the CAM, but it also has an additional 2 unamplified zones that you can either add full amps, or smaller amps like the LSA40 local source amps for smaller rooms.

The CAM has 2 fixed/variable outputs, the GC has fixed/variable output for each zone.

The GC allows you to use Input source 6 as a paging zone, the CAM has no paging capability.

And I'm sure alot more can go into a complete comparison. But for a very similar price, the GC has twice the power, is digital, has nicer keypads (imho) and some major additional features.

I don't know for sure, but maybe thats why it so popular right now. The best thing to do if at all possible is to see them both live at a show like EHX, and look and listen for yourself.

 

[Sendero]

Thanks for all the info Steve. I guess one of my thoughts was that many people would not even use the new keypads since they'd instead integrate it into their existing systems. For the Russound, I know I had found the CAM6.6T with no keypads for under $1400. With that pricing it seemed like the GC was much more but I had not considered the keypads in there. They do sound very nice though.

 

[IVB]

Well, this issue is now moot with me. The power of all free drivers has struck again. I scored a Concerto with 2 keypads and a host of accessories off eBay for $530 shipped! I've already got a buyer for the ZPR68 who doesn't mind the source bleeding problem i'm having, I'll be selling off the EXP9 with 5 zone cards, and probably all 3 parasound zamps within the next 7 days. The concerto is a pretty nice unit for that price point - the EXP9 w/5 cards cost me $450, and the zamps were $125 each. Granted I'll only be able to do 8 zones, but I might get the extender if I can find someone still selling it. If I can get my cost back on that stuff, I'll be happy. I was pretty tempted to get the grand concerto, but it was obviously much much more than $500 and I just couldn't justify that.

Well, off to create screens that reference the concerto, and to find boxes for all the spare stuff I now own and need to sell!