Dolby Volume Hits Harmon Kardon, Arcam Receivers

Dolby Volume, designed to level out audio settings across programs and channels, is finally being included in two new A/V receivers -- the Harman Kardon AVR 7550HD and the Arcam FMJ AVR600.

The original plan for Dolby Volume, according to Craig Eggers, senior marketing manager, Dolby Laboratories, was for it to be incorporated into TVs.

After CES 2008, however, he says, "we had a number of AVR manufacturers come to us and say they're looking for a solution like that."

The Harman Kardon and Arcam model are just the first of several receivers and receiver manufacturers that will incorporate Dolby Volume, Eggers seems to indicate. "Stay tuned," he says.

The integration into TVs did happen but only to a limited degree. Eggers says Toshiba launched a line of TVs with built-in Dolby Volume to the Japanese market. He says Dolby continues to pursue TV manufacturers.

Additionally, Eggers says Dolby is looking at other product categories that make sense for including Dolby Volume. Docking stations and 2.1 audio systems, he suggests, are possibilities.

Dolby Volume was first introduced at CEDIA Expo 2007 and officially launched four months later at CES 2008.

7.2 Channel Harman Kardon 7550HD Offers HDMI 1.3a

Harman Kardon's 7550HD is a 7.2 channel receiver that features Texas Instruments' DA710 audio digital signal processor (DSP) in a dual-DSP implementation.

Other capabilities include:

• Dolby TrueHD lossless
• HDMI V1.3a
• 1080p upscaling
• an HD on-screen menu system
• 7 x 110 watts of power output (into 8 ohms)

MSRP
$2,799 in January 2009

Arcam's AVR600 Has 100 Connections

Arcam's AVR600 boasts more than 100 input, output and control connections, the company says in its brochure (pdf).

Custom features include:

• RS-232 connections
• IR pass through
• 12 volt triggers

MSRP
Not announced.