I’m considering buying a Bartok, but the lack of included remote is giving me some pause. I’m coming from a Devialet Expert, which famously has perhaps the greatest remote control of all time (rotating volume wheel!). I’ve also got the Mola Mola Kula integrated, which at least includes a cheap Apple remote for volume and input selection.
I’m wondering if anyone is using the Senic Nuimo (also a volume wheel! but also with touch/gesture controls). Searches here turn up no matches for “Nuimo” or “Senic”, but Darko had a video about using it with his Bartok. It’s basically Roon-only, so you’d not have input selection, but it’s a darn sight cheaper than the dcs remote (even with the Raspberry Pi).
I tried to get my hands on one, but the manufacturer has stopped making them and it seems easier to find a dodo riding a unicorn than a Nuimo Senic.
The next best option seemed to me to be the 3Dconnexion (which looks like a rotary volume control, but isn’t). I also tried the Microsoft Surface Dial, which would have been great, but it times out after a couple of minutes to save battery life and you then have to wait for it to wake up!
The usual remote control for the Bartok would be an Apple (Mini) iPad or iPhone running dCS Mosaic.
Requires cable connection of the Bartok to Ethernet and WLAN connection to the Apple devices.
Android devices might also work.
Certainly that’s true, but for many a device like this is a poor substitute for a dedicated remote. For example, when the music is up and the phone rings or the spouse calls or someone forgets to turn the volume down and things are uncomfortably loud all of a sudden … well, you will want a remote that doesn’t require unlocking and app launching before you can control volume…
I’m still happy with my Nuimo (for Roon) plus cheap generic learning remote (for video sources), It’s a pity that the Microsoft Surface Dial goes to sleep and needs waking every time, else it would make a nice option!
I didn’t realise you already had a Nuimo. I’m jealous!
If you want to use it to control the Bartok as a second source, I suspect you’ll be able to do so with the same software on the RPi - I’ve got mine configured to control the volume of the current source I’m listening to.
A dCS remote similar in size to the 3DConnexion would be superb (with the same volume control as their existing remote, which is perfect in everything except size).
The Nuimo does continue to control volume on the Rossini (I ultimately found a used Rossini for about the same as a Bartok) on non-Roon sources, but the behavior is a bit awkward. First, it goes to sleep, so takes a second or two to wake up (when Roon is operating, it doesn’t sleep). Second, if you accidentally press or swipe it, it will switch over to the Roon/Network source. Still nice that it works at all on non-Roon sources.
It would be great if dCS implemented some kind of support for rotary volume controls via bluetooth or network connection (the rotary volume solution on the giant IR dCS remote is not nearly as good as the Nuimo solution via network). miniDSP appears to have directly incorporated code for the Microsoft Surface Dial into their SHD digital streamer.
