Newmarket, N.H. — Russound plans March shipments of a new C-series multizone controller/amplifier and in-wall keypad, both said to sport more features and deliver more intuitive control than their predecessors.
They are the MCA-C5 multizone controller amplifier ($3,050 street price) and the $349 MDK-C5.
Though called a controller, the C5 is more like a multiroom receiver because it incorporates AM/FM RDS
tuner and 12×40-watt digital amp. It connects to eight stereo sources and, with the addition of outboard four-channel amp, delivers music to up to eight zones. Each zone features variable and fixed outputs to give installers the flexibility to add external amps or create subzones by using Russound’s A-BUS amplified keypads.
Source Linking enables multiple zones to share the same source while retaining independent on/off and volume control in each zone. Zone Linking enables multiple zones to be controlled by one or more keypads.
The in-wall LCD keypad displays metadata from sources, including FM stations broadcasting an RDS signal RDS tuner.
The dual-gang MDK-C5 adds such new features as system clock, zone alarms, a sleep timer, paging and IR receiver. A Russound UNO-TS2 Smart touchscreen can be added to the system as well.
