Alpine's F#1 Status Adding IEEE 1394, DVD-Audio Ability

Staff On Jan 8 2004 - 8:00am

Alpine is upgrading its ultra high-end F#1Status line to include the company's first DVD-Audio receiver and one of the first 6.2 car sound processors.

The DVD-Audio player is an in-dash AM/FM/DVD (without screen) that is the first car stereo component to use IEEE 1394 FireWire. Called the DVI-9990, it does not use standard RCA jacks, but it transmits the DVD-Audio signal via Firewire to a processor or outboard D/A converter. The unit also connects by a new Alpine IONBUS and will carry a target price of $2,200.

The new 6.2-channel processor has two center channels. It is compatible with new Dolby and DTS technologies, which are being offered for the first time in the car. These include DTS ES, Neo:6 and Dolby Digital EX.

DTS ES offers 6.1 channels of music with a discrete rear center-channel. It can work with matrixed 6.1 channel products. DTS Neo:6 provides up to six full-band channels of matrixed decoding from two channel material. Dolby Digital EX offers 5.1 discrete channels and derives a matrixed rear center channel from the stereo mix of the two rear channels for a total of 6.1 channels.

Alpine's PXI-H990 processor will be available at a target price of $2,500.