Belgium-based Auro Technologies is bringing its first two AVRs with Auro-3D 11.1-channel surround to the U.S. They are the €12,300-suggested Auriga Standard and the €14,900 Auriga Luxury, which is the only Auro-enabled AVR being shown at CEDIA EXPO next month.
The company is seeking U.S. distribution and offers the products through its web site at http://www.auro-3d.com/.
The AVRs will decode Auro-3D soundtracks on future Blu-ray discs but will also upmix mono, stereo and multichannel sources to Auro-3D.
Auro technology is used in cinemas with a total of more than 500 screens outside the U.S. About eight movies are available in the format, but more than 100 international movies are slated for release with Auro soundtracks, the company said.
Auro soundtracks on future Blu-ray discs will use eight PCM tracks playable on existing players but encoded with metadata supporting the 11.1-channel Aurto-3D soundtracks mixed for cinemas. The AVRs will lets listeners hear the original Auro 11.1 mix as it was mixed in studio, the company said.
To deliver that promise, a spokesman explained, “metadata is encoded in the actual audio data and allows for the decoding of true, discrete channels at full resolution and with 100-percent channel separation.”
Traditional home theatre systems “will play the encoded files as standard surround mixes,” he added.
Auro’s two AVRs feature 13.1-channel playback through their amplifier sections, but four RCA line outs are available to support additional channels via add-on amplifiers. In a home theater incorporating 5.1 speakers, users could add four height speakers on the wall to deliver height effects.
Each amplified channel delivers 200 watts into 8 ohms with all channels driven.
The AVRs also decode DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. They also incorporate DTS Neo:X and Dolby ProLogic IIz post processing. They come with four HDMA 1.4a inputs, but upgrades are planned to add HDMI 2.0. Ten parametric filters per channel are available.