many thanks for the detailed response, jeff!
i am certainly not knocking Meridian for the rs232 interface - it's a GREAT tool to have, without any doubt whatsoever.
and i do appreciate that there's probably no one solution that'd make everybody happy.
in a perfect world, i guess i'd like to see Meridian support IR codes for lots of stuff (like direct access of soundfield presets) - but they may not necessarily support those IR codes on the MSR (which we all agree is a really sub-optimal beast anyway).
i have a few devices that do this (the prime example are discreet on/off codes).
seems like a lot of money to spend (crestron, etc.) just to be able to switch from Mode A to Mode B conveniently.
sab