For more information, contact Richard Stoerger at 914 946 9595, Rstoerger@aol.com.
Audio Design Associates (ADA) To Introduce New Products At CES 2000
ADA will be introducing SIX new products at CES 2000 (Booth 9335: 1. ADA 6.1 Surround Processor Audio Design Associates is the first manufacturer to introduce the next major advancement in home theater audio technology - the ADA 6.1 Surround Processor ($499). The 6.1 unit, an add-on processor, enhances the Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 surround sound experience by sending all mono-rear channel information to an actual speaker(s). The experience is augmented as the listener actually hears these sounds emanating from a speaker(s), rather than ""imagining"" a phantom center-back sound field. The effect is extremely dramatic and makes a huge difference for any 5.1 encoded movie, 5.1 DSS broadcast, or 5.1 music software. For systems using a 5.1 A/V receiver, ADA also offers the AMP x 4 Four Channel Power Amplifier ($399) that can operate as either a strict surround channel power amplifier or as both an amplifier and speaker to line-level audio converter. 2. Rapture Keypad (Model MC-5000) ñ Control With Color The Rapture Keypad (Price TBA) is the newest control in the ADA family of keypads. Designed to operate with either ADA's existing Millennium 2000 and Delta Systems as well as ADA's all-new Rhapsody Multi-Room A/V System, Rapture lets the user design the color scheme of the keypads using the power of light. Rapture buttons are clear rubber with the function name silk-screened on top. Behind each button is a three color LED chip. Buttons are grouped by function and each group can be assigned a unique color. This powerful feature makes ADA Systems with Rapture Keypads easier to control, because in addition to easily identifiable button function nomenclature, different function types can have their own distinctly unique color. Furthermore, because the buttons are back-lit, they are easier to read, even in darkness. The colors available include red, blue, green, yellow, purple, aqua, white, and off (no color or glow). 3. Rhapsody, The Ultimate Multi-Room Mainframe In 1998, ADA embarked on the design of a multi-room mainframe that had absolutely no-limits and could handle any size installation. Engineering criteria included the ability to switch and route all forms of audio, including standard stereo, Dolby Digital formats, DTS audio, as well as other audio formats The system also had to handle any type of video, including component video, HDTV, super-video and composite video. Finally, it had to play the audio in either two-channel stereo or multi-channel decoding formats. The result is Rhapsody. Rhapsody (Price TBA) consists of two mainframe components: the Conductor, which is the switcher/router, and the Orchestra, the component that houses the room preamplifier cards. The key element behind the Conductor is its ability to switch a limitless number of sources, those located at the mainframe and those located throughout the house, to any room independently of other rooms. The Orchestra can be used to expand the system into a limitless number or rooms/zones using Quartet cards. 4. Cinema Rhapsody ($3,999) Like its ""big sister,"" Cinema Reference, the Cinema Rhapsody is designed to be a powerful home theatre component, acting as the heart of a high-end home theater system. Almost identically featured as the Cinema Reference, the Cinema Rhapsody does not include an RGB switcher, the input used to for High Definition TVs; an RF demodulator, an output previously incorporated for older laser disc players to play Dolby Digital sound (newer players have their own RF demodulator built in); and a Vectorscope, a display that shows how much power each sound channel is using. 5. Trinity Triple Tuner ($2,499) The Trinity Triple Tuner is a PC-programmable tuner capable of playing three radio stations SIMULTANEOUSLY to different rooms throughout the home, office, yacht or aircraft. It comes complete with two Fm stereo tuner modules and one AM. Each tuner can have up to 20 presets for a total of 60 stations and, aside from the frequency number, each preset can be custom-labeled with either the preset number, the station's call symbols, or a descriptive word (JAZZ, ROCK, NEWS, etc.). 6. PTM-1226 ($1,199) The PTM-1226 is a 12-channel amplifier, rated at 25 Watts-per-channel at 8 Ohms, 40 Watts-per-channel at 4 Ohms, stable at 2 Ohms-per-channel. The rack-mounted amplifier is fan cooled and features a low voltage trigger that turns zones on and off quickly as needed for multi-room sound reinforcement.