CEDIA 2016

Indy Audio Labs is upgrading its $8,500 Acurus ACT 4 home-theater preamp processor to support 7.3.6 and 9.3.2 speaker systems, the company announced here at CEDIA 2016.

The only other pre pros supporting six in-ceiling height speakers cost three times as much, said Indy co-founder and CEO Rick Santiago.

The pre-pro, which decodes Dolby Atmos and DTS:X object-based soundtracks, previously supported speaker configurations up to 7.3.4 and did not support front-wide channels, which bring the front-speaker complement to five from three.

The improvements will be available to current ACT 4 owners as a dealer-installed firmware upgrade in October, when new ACT 4 models will be available with the additional channels pre-installed.

The benefits of six height channels will be particularly audible in large home-theater rooms, including long but narrow rooms, because they will deliver more seamless panning of audio objects in the height field, Santiago said. Large rooms also benefit from smoother panning across five front speakers, he added. But rooms of any size will benefit from the more complex speaker configurations, he added. The ACT 4 became available in July.