Does remote control degrade the sound of tube preamps?

@jumia ,

[please forgive my poor English]

Sorry if my post was not clear. I cannot edit it anymore. What I meant is:

Generally speaking, a standby mode leaves the unit always on, and shuts it down partially with remote.

Aries Cerat does NOT want its gear to endure such constraints, especially as they use tubes. Therefore, Aries Cerat does NOT provide any standby mode.

So, the remote of Aries Cerat preamplifiers controls the following functions:

• volume control (stepped attenuator)
• balance control
• mute control
• input switch control
• display control
• standby !!

I hope this clarifies.

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IF a standby via the remote control is absolutely mandatory for practical reasons, THEN I can’t help but mentioning the very good NuPrime AMG-PRA that I own in a second system (see details in the Toggle Details button on that page). Class A, genuinely balanced, the number of inputs is limited though (1XLR, 3 RCAs). Also provides a phase inverter, but only by a switch on the front fascia (not via remote).

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Sorry for the thread drift.

looks just like a primaluna preamp remote. 

There is nothing that makes remote controlled volume control inferior in sound quality.  If it is implemented with a motorized potentiometer, the quality is entirely dependent on the quality of the potentiometer, not on the motor whose only job is to twist the shaft just as your hand would also do.  Even if your volume control is a rotary step attenuator, it is possible to physically move the dial under motor control (Ayre does this).  Many very good attenuators are ladder step attenuators that are switched by relays, and the relays are always remote controllable.

It is so important to get volume set just right to get optimum sound quality and satisfaction, and that can only be done practically by remote control as you sit in the sweet spot and instantaneously hear the result.  Remote control of volume is pretty much an essential feature, not merely a convenience.  Without it, one tends to just live with something close to the right volume instead of actually determining what is the right volume.

And they look cool when the knobs move.
It is pretty slick (IME).

I had never seen one until I got a used preamp with this sort of remote, and I like it conceptually and also in action.

As a manufacturer we tried so many controls and recently replaced a very high priced control $400 that we added Audio Note resistors to with a basic ALPS, darn if we could really hear the difference.  BUT I an sure there are difference depending on what your system can show.

I doubt I'd hear any difference at all, and the convenience of having the remote would far outweigh any miniscule difference there could possibly be.

I've got a Herron Audio tube preamp, and I think at one point, Keith Herron did not offer remote, but there was enough demand for it that it now has it. For a great, great product, this is the cheapest remote I've ever seen in my life - all plastic, weighs almost nothing, and it's less than 4" long! Gets misplaced very easily, too! Maybe this was Keith saying 'OK, I'll give you a remote, but .... '