Kenwood Is The First Home Audio Company To Offer New DolbyÆ Pro Logic II Surround Sound In A/V Receivers

Cirrus Logic Providing Pro Logic II Chips For New VR-507, VR-509 and VR-510 Audio Video Receivers

16-Mar-01

Offering technology that bridges the performance gap between Dolby Pro LogicÆ and DolbyÆ Digital 5.1 surround sound, Kenwood USA Corp. announced that it is the first home audio company to incorporate Dolby Pro Logic II (PL II) technology into its 2001 line of home theatre audio/video receivers. PL II is a newly-developed technology from Dolby Laboratories that takes all two-channel analog surround-encoded material, such as movie soundtracks found on VHS tape and many of your favorite TV shows on broadcast, cable and DSS, and creates a soundfield more like Dolby Digital 5.1.  To be the first with PL II, Kenwood worked with Cirrus Logic, the Austin, Texas producer of high performance analog and DSP chips, enabling three of Kenwoodís new receivers for 2001 - the VR-507, VR-509 and VR-510 - to be equipped with this new feature. According to Dolby, PL II not only improves the sound quality of Pro Logic source materials, but enhances two-channel (stereo) sources as well. PL II transforms non-surround broadcast TV and two-channel stereo music into surround sound that maximizes the performance of all five channels of a surround sound audio system.""Kenwood was eager to get the PL II technology into our products and be the first to offer this new surround technology to our dealers and customers,"" said Brian Towne, Kenwood National Product Manager for Home Electronics. ""A result of our long-standing relationship with Cirrus Logic allowed us to add PL II into our new receivers. We could not be more happy with the results.""Terry Richie, Vice President, Strategic Marketing, DSP Technologies at Cirrus Logic is also happy Kenwood was able to use its chip. ""We are delighted that Kenwood is including Dolby Pro Logic II technology in their new product line. This again demonstrates the advantages of our programmable Crystal audio DSPs and a factory-direct programming model. Cirrus Logic is happy to be the first chip manufacturer to market such an important advancement in surround sound decoding.""Conventional Dolby Pro Logic sends the same information to both the left and right surround speakers, while providing a top frequency response of about 7kHz. PL II outputs discrete full-range information to both surround channels independently, delivering a more robust, full-range response, to around 20kHz. This results in a richer, more lively, dynamic sound than was previously possible. ""We are very excited to see Kenwood adding Pro Logic II to so many of their 2001 A/V receivers,"" said Brent Butterworth, Director of Consumer Technology Marketing at Dolby Laboratories. ""Kenwood's aggressive implementation of Pro Logic II at affordable price points will bring this highly versatile and effective technology to practically any consumer, and will help make PL II a must-have technology in A/V receivers this year.""

For more information about Kenwood USA Corp., visit www.kenwoodusa.com.

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