John Young
Owner
ACME Integration, Lakewood, CO
acmeintegrationco.com
Getting his start as hobbyist in car stereo competitions and 12V applications, John Young became a systems contractor almost 12 years ago. At ACME Integration, his primary focus is now distributed AV systems within new construction where centralized solutions are often in demand. Young has been an RTI dealer for four years.
How do you rate the AD-4?
I give it a nine. It would be a 10, but it doesn’t have source loop-throughs, so they can’t be cascaded from amplifier to amplifier. But at its price point (MAP $899), it’s one of the best distributed audio amplifiers on the market.
For what types of installations is it best suited?
It works really well in residential installations with multiple sources. On many projects, we’ve been able to give the client a much higher level of control by expanding control of the different zones to in-wall touchpanels with two-way feedback, and to handheld remotes to enable control from anywhere in the home.
What is one feature of the AD-4 that stands out in your projects?
The ability of the AD-4 to integrate with RTI’s two-way control products is a very important feature to us and our clients, because distributed audio can be pretty complicated and that level of feedback is invaluable. At the same time, before the AD-4 there really wasn’t a good solution for volume control over separate zones. So it’s a tie between volume control by zone and two-way communications. Because of these features and its low price point, the AD-4 is a pretty easy unit to sell.
What features would you like to see changed or added?
I would like to see audio outputs or loop-throughs added, which would make installation cleaner with less wiring. However, this feature is available on the recently released AD-8, so I’m pretty excited to start installing it.
