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In advance of CEDIA, which opens in Dallas on September 15, Parasound has announced the ZoneMaster 4 DAX, which it says is the first four-zone DAC with built-in crossovers.

The 4 DAX, which will be available in September for $995, was designed in re-sponse to the complexity faced by custom installers who build high-resolution multizone sound systems around platforms such as Sonos Connect, Heos Link, BlueSound Node, and Google Chromecast Audio. The single-chassis device contains four 192kHz ESS Sabre DACs, four Parasound-designed analog cross-overs with multiple configuration options, and four 12-volt outputs, each triggered when analog audio is present in a particular zone.

The device’s analog audio outputs include full-range stereo, high-pass stereo, full-range mono, high-pass mono, and low-pass mono/subwoofer for each of the four zones. Each zone has optical and coaxial inputs, level adjustments for left and right channels and 12-volt outputs for turning on additional equipment such as amplifiers and cooling equipment. Parasound's own ZoneMaster line of multizone amplifiers has independent trigger outputs for each zone making them ideal companions to the 4 DAX.

"When working with installers using our ZoneMaster multichannel amplifiers, we'd noticed that the popular wireless systems were frequently upgraded with multiple stereo DACs and separate active crossovers for adding in-wall subwoofers,” said Richard Schram, president and founder of Parasound. “This complexity and cost has just begged for a multichannel DAC."

Previously, installers would have needed four separate DACs and four crossovers, in four separate chassis taking up precious rack space and making integration with subwoofers and bass limited speakers overly complicated.

For more information, visit parasound.com.