Early this year, I took a look at the Monster AVL300 remote, which is what I would describe as Harmony behind a Monster mask. Demo’d at CES 2010 was a couple of new remotes coming from Monster, the Evolution 50 and 55. Today, I am looking at the Evolution 55, which is a radical departure from the Logitech powered AVL100 and 300 remotes.
However, before I get to the Evolution 55, let’s learn a bit about Monster first.
The Company
The Monster Story
Monster Cable Products, Inc. was founded in 1979 by Noel Lee, who was then a laser-fusion design engineer at Lawrence-Livermore Laboratory, as well as an audiophile and professional drummer. Lee discovered that wires of different constructions produced varying degrees of audio performance when hooked up to loudspeakers. From this discovery, he developed a high performance speaker cable, named it Monster Cable, and literally created an industry. The invention of Monster Cable created a new product category that revolutionized the audio market. Prior to Monster Cable, most stereo systems were wired with ordinary “zip-cord,” the same cable used for electrical household and lamp wire. Their inferior construction and cheap materials restricts power, dynamic range and clarity in the lows, mids, and highs.
Lee chose the name “Monster” because it sounded strong and powerful. It became an immediate hit with consumers. In fact, the name Monster Cable is so synonymous with high quality and high performance, customers often assume that any cable they purchase in reputable stores would be Monster even though there are other cable brands.
Monster is now the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance cables that connect audio/video components for home, car and professional use as well as computers and computer games. Monster Cable is an indispensable component for music lovers, audiophiles, recording studios, sound professionals, musicians, custom-installers and home theatre enthusiasts. Monster’s audio cables increase the clarity, dynamics and power of the audio signals that travel through them. Monster video cables deliver the sharpest, clearest picture possible with naturally vivid color from traditional and digital television, projectors, home theatre and satellite systems. Monster Game products lets enthusiasts enjoy the ultimate gaming experience by maximizing sound and video quality of a gaming system. Monster Power, a division of Monster Cable, delivers cleaner AC power to A/V components and computer products and high joule surge protection for maximum performance.
Monster’s New Product Development division draws upon years of audio design and critical listening experience, to create the innovative, high performance cables and accessories that make Monster the leader in the industry. Already holding over 200 US and international patents, Monster is continually striving to discover and develop new, advanced technologies and designs to meet the needs of the ever-advancing consumer electronics industry. Monster offers over 4000 products and is sold in over 80 countries worldwide. Download: Key Monster Patents (7.84MB)
Monster is also a leader in the local community and prides itself in the work it does to help those who are in less than fortunate circumstances. See what Monster does to care for our community.
What’s In The Box?
Today, you, the consumer get a small behinds the scene look at the marketing side of a company. The following box views you see are a work-in-process view of what may become the shipping retail box. The remote is ready for primetime, but Monster is still working of the packaging of the product. As a result, you get to see what *might* be vs. what *will* be.
As a consumer myself, and as an engineer, I am quite fascinated by the thought process that must go through the marketing minds to develop the “best” packaging for a product.
So, here is “What’s in the box”. The product is real, the box may *not* be!
And in lieu of a manual on disc, I get the real thing. Quite nice, actually!
Finally, one gets to the actual contents. In this case, we have some batteries (actually, there are four of them), the obligatory EU documentation, and the actual remote.
For the younger generation, one should feel quite at home with this remote, as it resembles/mimics a console game controller to a degree.
