Klipsch Group not releasing multi-room audio system

By Devin Brown

In an email sent Thursday, Klipsch Group, the oldest speaker company in the country, told its customers and dealers it’s not ready to release any wireless multi-room audio systems.

In this image released by Klipsch, it shows the
Klipschhorn. It was the first speaker Paul W.
Klipsch, founder of the company, built. (Klipsch Group)

The email was labeled “Driven by Klipsch: The Plain Truth about Multi-Room,” the company said it had spent more than a year evaluating potential technologies in “kick-ass” sound. It said it believes many other audio companies have rushed speakers to the new market and have “fallen off a cliff.” The company said when the time is right it will release new products. It ended the email saying, “stay tuned for more updates. It will be worth it. Rock on.”

AVI Systems in Draper, Utah, is one of the largest custom integrators in Utah for Klipsch. Jim Young, the president of AVI, has more than 20 years in the AV world. He said his company was not surprised by the email. In past meetings with Klipsch sales representatives, Young said the company told him multi-room audio was “in the works.”

“In the world of speaker products there are people who build products and people who buy parts from China,” Young said. “Klipsch files the patents and then they make those products.”

Klipsch builds all of its Heritage and Palladium series in the U.S. The company’s Synergy line – a Best Buy only line – is made in China under direction from Klipsch.

Joseph Bodell, a sales managers at Custom Sound Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, said Custom Sound already pairs Klipsch in-ceiling speakers with Sonos products like the Connect and Connect:Amp.

Bodell said Custom Sound doesn’t want its customers to install their own multi-room audio systems because the setup can be complicated.

“On the custom side people don’t want to set things up,” Bodell said. “They want AV companies to do it for them.”

Young said Bose and Klipsch are usually last to “the table” of new technologies. Some of the most recent technologies to connect audio with speakers are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. He believes Klipsch is waiting to perfect the technology but it’s also waiting to see if the wireless multi-room audio market will be profitable.

This year at CES, the wireless speaker market saw new releases from Samsung, Denon, Definitive Technology, LG, Harmon Kardon and Monster. In October Sonos filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against D&M Holdings, the investing company that owns Denon and Marantz. Sonos cited four instances where D&M had copied its product. Young said Sonos controls 90 percent of the market. He believes 

Klipsch is taking more time because it wants to be sure the new multi-room products stay out of litigation.

In this image released by Klipsch, it shows the
CDT-2650 C II. (Klipsch Group)

Young said it’s hard to order any new product line because he doesn’t know if it will be in production for the next year. He said AVI still has a discontinued series of wireless multi-room speakers from Definitive 

Technology. Young said his customers don’t want to buy anything that doesn’t have a record like Sonos.

Custom Sound’s most popular pair of Klipsch in-ceiling speakers, typically used for multi-room setups, are the CDT-2650 C II and the CDT-3650 C II. According to Klipsch’s website these Reference Series speakers sale for $200 and $300 each.

Klipsch group is owned by Voxx Internation Corporation. The company’s headquarters are in Indianapolis. Klipsch would not comment on what new technologies might be used in its new wireless multi-room audio system.

Deezer comes to Sonos dealers

By Devin Brown

In this image released by Deezer, it shows the Sonos sub operated
with Deezer Elite service. (Deezer)

Last month Sonos dealers received emails saying they were eligible to sell Deezer Elite, a subscription based HD music streaming service only available to Sonos and Bose customers. This announcement has received mixed reviews among some Sonos dealers in Utah.

Deezer will be able to track how many new Deezer Elite accounts are sold by Sonos dealers. The dealers will receive a commission for each Deezer account they sell.

Headquartered in Paris, Deezer is one of Europe’s largest music streaming services. It’s one of the first services in the U.S. to stream in high-resolution music, uncompressed music designed to give the listener a “studio quality” sound.

In September Glenn Peoples, a contributor for Billboard.com, wrote Deezer wants to differentiate itself by selling sound quality over the number of artist a service, such as Pandora and Spotify, carries.

Brandon Curtin, a project designer at Big Fish Automation in Draper, Utah, said Deezer is for people who are looking to narrow down their options for better music.

Curtin said Deezer is an “awesome” service but he doubts people will actually find out about the app. He believes Deezer is testing the U.S. market. He said fans of Pandora and Spotify might not understand what makes Deezer different.

“Deezer is definitely just dipping their toes in the market,” Curtin said. “The United States is known for quantity over quality. I don’t think most people will care about the high-res music.”

Curtin said Big Fish’s customers aren’t afraid to spend money on HD music. He said if a customer spends over $10,000 on a stereo system they will go out of their way to buy high-resolution music, through either websites like HDtracks.com or CDs such as super audio CDs.

Jared Walth, a salesman for AVWORX in Layton, Utah, said Deezer is a better option than Tidal, another HD music streaming service in the U.S. He said Tidal is $19.99 per month. Deezer is $9.99 per month with a one-year commitment for Sonos customers.

Walth said his customers who use compressed music streaming apps like Spotify and Pandora would be excited to use Deezer. He said it depends if Deezer lets non-Sonos subscribers use the service.

“I’ve got a few guys who listen with headphones,” Walth said. “They’ll ditch their Spotify if they get Deezer.”

In this image released by Sonos,
it shows the Connect preamp with
RCA and Digital connections
on the back. (Sonos)

Spotify, which doesn't stream music in HD, cost $9.99 per month for its unlimited streaming service.

Walth said using Deezer with a Sonos Connect player, a wireless preamp, will add HD music to any system using a digital optical cable.

Sonos customers can activate Deezer Elite through the Sonos app. All Sonos dealers received a free Deezer account to demo to customers.

Deezer would not comment on when the app might be available to all customers in the U.S. It would also not comment on how much commission each Sonos dealer receives for selling Deezer Elite accounts.  

Megaplex Theatres adds more Atmos theaters

By Devin Brown

Utah’s largest theater company, Megaplex Theatres, is building two Dolby Atmos theaters at the new @geneva project in Vineyard, Utah. They hope to finish the entire project by February.

In this image released by Dolby, it shows

a typical Atmos setup. (Dolby Laboratories)

The first theater will be comparable in size to Megaplex’s Valley Fair Atmos theater, with about 550 seats. The second theater will be smaller with about 350 seats.

Jeff Whipple, the vice president of marketing and advertising for Megaplex Theaters, is excited about the new addition for the company. He said the Miller family — Megaplex Theatres is owned by the Larry H. Miller Group — has always wanted the “latest and greatest” technologies in its theaters.

In this photo released by Claco,

it shows the Christie Vive speakers

and sub-woofers, 45' in the air.

(Claco Equipment)

Whipple believes most movie producers and recording studios want to work with Megaplex to bring the most advanced technologies to its theaters. Megaplex was selected by Dolby to be one of the first theaters in the country to offer the Atmos format. According to Dolby’s website, there are over 100 Atmos Theaters in the U.S.

“Megaplex has a good reputation in the film industry,” Whipple said. “We get a lot of chances to beta test a lot of new technologies in the industry.”

Not every Utahn knows about Atmos, according to Whipple, but he thinks with the new release of Atmos on the consumer market many customers will come to hear Atmos in theaters.

Adam Tillman, the projection manager for Megaplex’s 178 screens, said Megaplex is building more Atmos theaters to make it easier on their customers. Many times at the Valley Fair Atmos theater, according to Tillman, customers had to wait to see a specific movie in Atmos. He said customers would now be able to pick from two theaters at the same location.

“A lot more movies are available in Atmos,” Tillman said. “With so many movies in Atmos it’s hard to show everything on just one screen.”

Whipple said he has heard of audiophiles taking a “pilgrimage” to the Valley Fair Atmos theater just to hear the sound difference.

Tillman said the Geneva Atmos theaters are being built specifically for Atmos. When Megaplex built the Valley Fair theaters it didn’t add Atmos until after the design process. Megaplex then had to retrofit its designs to accommodate Dolby’s specifications.

The Geneva Atmos theaters will have, according to Tillman, Christie Vive Audio speakers. Tillman said Christie Vive speakers are different from Valley Fair’s QSC and JBL speakers because it uses a ribbon tweeter design. Christie Vive’s ribbon tweeters, according to its website, are four times the efficiency as a compression speaker.

Eric Butterworth, a salesman at Claco Equipment, the company who helped designed the Geneva theaters, said the Geneva Atmos theaters will also have D-Box —  full-motion seats that move with a movie, a first for an Atmos theater in the western U.S. — and 3D, these formats are currently not offered at the Valley Fair Atmos theater.  

According to Whipple, ticket pricing at Megaplex’s Atmos theaters will stay at the normal $9.25 rate. This is the same price for Megaplex’s standard movies.

“We try to keep the ticket prices low,” Whipple said. “It has a lot to do with the agreements that we make with Dolby and other companies.”

New Atmos movies to be released are: “The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay - Part 1” and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”

New Alpine headphones not available to Utah dealers

In this image released by Alpine Electronics,
it shows the headphones' 40 mm drivers that can be
controlled from the Level Play iPhone app. (Alpine Electronics)

By Devin Brown

Alpine Electronics’ new over-the-ear headphones, released on Oct. 17, are exclusively available at Apple Stores. No one else will be allowed to sell the new headphones.

Named the “Alpine Headphones” these are the first pair of home headphones that Alpine has released. They include two digital amplifiers with 10 hours of battery life. The headphones have received moderate reviews.

Caleb Denison, an AV editor for Digitaltrends.com, said the headphones were “bass heavy” because of the embedded bass transducer in the headband.

“We didn’t know they were being released until the press conference,” said Eric Baltzer, an Alpine sales rep for Utah, Idaho and Montana. “We have very little information on the deal with Apple; I haven’t even heard them yet.”

Baltzer said he’s had several 12-volt dealers — an industry term used for car audio companies — from Utah already calling him trying to buy the new headphones.

“We’re not sure yet if middle management will let our 12-volt dealers sell them,” Baltzer said. “I can see very few dealers in Utah qualifying to sell them.”

In these images released by Alpine Electronics,
shows a diagram of the bass module that sits
in the headband. (Alpine Electronics)

Scott Doran, a manager at Car Concepts, an Alpine flagship dealer for Utah, said he hasn’t had any customers looking to buy the headphones. He believes it won’t affect his company's business.

“From a car audio standpoint it’s still just a headphone,” Doran said. “I believe that you can get a lot better sound from a good car system.”

Doran said the $299.99 headphones don’t compare how much Car Concepts could make from an Alpine car audio sale. He said carrying the headphone line would take up valuable floor space.

“Retail is a double-edge sword,” Doran said. “We tried home audio for a while but we decided that car audio was where we excelled the most. I would be afraid that we wouldn’t have very much interest from them.”

With 20 years in the AV industry, Baltzer said he has seen many different audio companies try to sell headphones. He said Alpine would match the same build quality as their car audio products. He felt confident Alpine needs good product marketing to be a “player” in the $2.3 billion headphone market.

“Marketing is huge,” Baltzer said. “My assumption is that this move forward isn’t cheap.”

Dolby Atmos becomes available to Utah homes

In this image released by Dolby Laboratories,

 it shows a home theater 7.1.4 Atmos setup. (Dolby Laboratories)

By Devin Brown

Some AV integrators and installers in Utah believe the new audio surround format, Dolby Atmos, isn't ready for installation into homes.

This month AV companies  from Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, Integra and Pioneer Elite will be updating their home AV receivers to play Atmos, an object-based surround sound coding format that makes every speaker in a room play different surround sound effects to immerse the listener into an “atmosphere” of sound.

Jared Walth, a salesman at AVWorx in Layton, Utah, hasn’t had many customers asking about the new Atmos format.

“Most companies are doing a downloadable update that you can put on their receivers,” Walth said. “Customers don't even know the update is available yet. The only company that we carry now that includes an Atmos chip is Marantz.”

Walth said he wants to have AVWorx’s main demo room ready for Atmos by the end of the year. He believes Atmos will change the AV world. He said Atmos will only sell if it’s demonstrated correctly.

“If you have a ceiling higher than eight feet you’re more likely to have in-ceiling speakers that will run Atmos,” Walth said. “We are going to have amplifiers on each speaker. We don’t want to run the whole system off a receiver. Most receivers don’t have enough power to run 11 speakers.”

In this image released by Dolby Laboratories, speakers enhanced
Atmos technology simulated a 7.1.4 setup. (Dolby Laboratories)

Claco Equipment, a commercial theater design company in Salt Lake City, Utah, designed the only commercial Atmos theater in Utah. The theater was built for Megaplex Theaters at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley, Utah. Claco used 48 speaker channels of audio in the theater; a channel refers to how many different audio tracks can be used. All the speakers were connected to their own individual amplifiers. The channels then were run through the $30,000 Atmos theater processor.

Eric Butterworth, a salesman for Claco, doesn't think the decoding — taking a recorded signal and converting it to audio — in Atmos will be the same as a commercial Atmos processor.

“In a commercial situation Atmos alone adds $100,000 on top of a normal theater build,” Butterworth said. “I don’t think it will be anywhere as good as the real thing.”

Butterworth said that the calibration for the Atmos Theater took one month. The basic calibration on a home receiver takes around 10 minutes. Claco had representatives from Dolby on site to help with any calibration issues.

Walth said the only Blu-ray Disc available with the Atmos format is “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” Additional Atmos ready Blu-ray Discs will be available next spring.

 

“We barely just got the specs on how to accurately set-up a home theater with Atmos,” Walth said. “There aren't really much options to even play Atmos.”