Yamaha will manufacture four new receivers and several new home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems with XM "Connect-and-Play," a technology designed to integrate XM into a broad range of home entertainment products.
The first Yamaha XM-Ready receivers will be available at retail in early April.
Through this new technology, consumers simply plug an XM Connect-and-Play home antenna (MSRP $49.99) into the XM-Ready Yamaha AV receiver and activate the service to receive XM's 150-plus digital radio channels. No additional accessories or installation are required.
Using XM's chipset technology as well as a new proprietary chip and signaling protocol, the XM Connect-and-Play antenna is capable of receiving XM's satellite and terrestrial signals as well as channel tuning, decoding and audio transmission. It will be the only accessory needed to get XM through an XM-Ready audio system.
"The partnership between XM and Yamaha is ushering in a new era of home entertainment innovation," said Phil Whitworth, XM's director of product marketing.
Yamaha's line of XM-Ready receivers include two 6.1 channel receivers, the RX-V457 (85W x 6) and RX-V557 (90W x 6), and two 7.1 channel receivers, the RX-V657 (95W x 7) and RX-V757 (100W x 7).
The receivers come with all of the latest surround sound formats, with Yamaha's proprietary YPAO System featured on the RX-V657 and RX-V757, which automatically analyzes the acoustics of the user's room and adjusts various speaker parameters to provide the optimum sound at the listening position.
In addition, Yamaha will release four XM-Ready receivers from their HTR-series with features similar to RX-V series. The HTR series will be available in April for mass-channel distribution from $349.95 to $849.95 MSRP.
Yamaha will also introduce several XM-Ready HTIB solutions from its YHT line of products.
- From an XM Satellite Radio News Release
