Pine Brook, N.J. — Denon Electronics became the second A/V receiver maker to unveil an XM-ready home A/V receiver, a premium model due in April at a suggested $3,500.
The company announced the addition of XM’s Connect-And-Play chip to the AVR-4806 multizone A/V receiver, which was previously announced without XM compatibility. With the Connect-And-Play chip, the 4806 will control a tiny outboard universal XM tuner built into a flip-up home XM antenna that XM will offer in April at a suggested $49.95. The antenna/tuner plugs into the proprietary XM connector of any XM-ready home entertainment device, which will display satellite-radio program information, including song title and artist name.
Denon said its receiver is the industry’s first premium XM-ready A/V receiver. In March and April, Yamaha began delivering XM-ready A/V receivers priced from a suggested $229 to $849. Two or three XM-ready Yamaha home theater in a box are also due soon after the receivers ship.
The seven-channel, three-zone 4806 features THX Ultra2 post-processing, Dolby headphone, HDMI/DVI digital video source switching and up-conversion of all video sources to HDMI output. It also features three high-bandwidth (100 MHz), HDTV-compatible component video inputs, IEEE-1394 input and an Ethernet port for control and future upgrades.
An XM-ready Eton-brand tabletop radio is due in April at a suggested retail of $300 and will be followed in June by a battery-operated portable radio with built-in speaker at a suggested $150.
The Denon, Yamaha and Eton products are the first XM-ready home products announced to date.
