FEATURES

■Built-in 8-channel power amplifier

• Main:

130 W + 130 W (8Ω) RMS Output Power, 0.015% THD, 20 – 20,000 Hz

• Center:

130 W (8Ω) RMS Output Power, 0.015% THD, 20 – 20,000 Hz

• Rear:

130 W + 130 W (8Ω) RMS Output Power, 0.015% THD, 20 – 20,000 Hz

• Front:

45 W + 45 W (8Ω) RMS Output Power, 0.05% THD, 1 kHz

• Rear center:

130 W (8Ω) RMS Output Power, 0.015% THD, 20 – 20,000 Hz

■Digital Sound Fields (DSP)

Technological advances in sound reproduction over the last 30 years have enhanced the listening experience with improved clarity, precision, and power. However, something has been missing: the atmosphere and acoustic ambience of the public venue. Our Yamaha engineers have extensively researched the nature of sound acoustics and the way sound reflects inside a room. We sent these engineers to famous theaters and concert halls around the world to measure the acoustics of those venues with sophisticated microphones. The data they collected is used to recreate these environments in digital sound fields. Some of these digital sound fields have been created using data measured at the original venue; others have been created from combinations of data to form unique environments for specific purposes. Some have been designed especially for music, and others especially for movies. Of course, this only solves half of the problem. Because these engineers have no way of knowing the acoustics of your entertainment room, we have made it possible for you to adjust the various parameters of this data to tailor each virtual venue to your taste. You can use these sound fields to enhance any source and in combination with any of the following surround sound technologies.

■CINEMA-DSP: Dolby Digital + DSP and DTS + DSP

The Dolby Digital system and DTS system show their full capability in large movie theaters, because feature film soundtracks are designed to be reproduced in such environments. It is difficult to recreate a sound environment similar to a movie theater in your entertainment room because of the room size, wall materials, and the number of speakers in your entertainment system. Yamaha DSP technology makes it possible for you to enjoy nearly the same sound experience as that of a large movie theater in your entertainment room by compensating for lack of presence and dynamics in your entertainment room with Yamaha's original digital sound fields combined with Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks.

■Virtual CINEMA DSP and SILENT CINEMA DSP

Yamaha developed the Virtual CINEMA DSP algorithm which allows you to experience the virtual sound fields without surround speakers. This makes it possible for the DSP-AZ1 to produce a full surround sound catering to the number of speakers you have. The DSP-AZ1 also has a SILENT CINEMA DSP algorithm which is achieved by the crosstalk processing applying the precise Head Related Transfer Function. You can therefore enjoy listening to the CINEMA DSP soundfields on headphones.

■Various decoders to support the newest sound effect technology

This unit is equipped with the following signal format decoders.

• Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital EX

The Matrix decoder enables 6.1-channel playback of the 5.1-channel sources by extracting the rear center channel signals from the rear L/R channel signals.

•DOLBY PRO LOGIC

•DOLBY PRO LOGIC

DOLBY PRO LOGIC is the improved technique to decode vast numbers of existing Dolby Surround programs. This new technology enables a discrete 5-channel playback with two left and right main channels, a center channel, and two left and right rear channels compared with one limited rear channel for the conventional Pro Logic technology. Also the music mode is available for 2-channel sources in addition to the movie mode.

• DTS and DTS ES

The DSP-AZ1 is also equipped with a DTS decoder, which uses a 5.1-channel system to create a full surround sound environment. It was developed as a way to replace the analog soundtracks of movies with six channels of digital sound. In comparison with Dolby Digital, DTS uses less compression to store the sound information. The newly presented DTS ES system reproduces digital sound similar to Dolby Digital EX. The use of the rear center speaker along with the existing 5.1-channel speakers provides a fully immersive cinematic audio experience.

• DTS Neo: 6

Neo: 6 decodes the conventional 2-channel sources for 6-channel playback by the specific decoder. It enables playback with the full-range channels with higher separation just like digital discrete signal playback. Two modes are available; “Music mode” for playing music sources and “Cinema mode” for movies.

• DTS 96/24

DTS 96/24 achieves the high quality playback with all 5.1 channels at the sampling frequency 96 kHz/24 bit.

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