NEAR Speakers will debut three new products in booth 1716 at CEDIA 2016 – two entry level outdoor speakers and a power amplifier optimized for driving outdoor speakers.
New Outdoor Speaker Series
The VM1 (4.5″ 2-way) and VM2 5.25″ 2-way) outdoor full-range loudspeakers are NEAR’s first offerings below $500 per pair MSRP. The new models retain many of NEAR’s signature features and benefits such as NEAR’s Magnetic Liquid Suspension (MLS) “spiderless” metal alloy woofers and tweeters for superior sound quality and durability.
The VM Series surface mount bracket is the same as the brand’s NEARSCAPES satellite speakers – a flexible-positioning 2-part design that minimizes installer “ladder time.” Premium features such as a water and debris-proof wire connector; UV inhibitor-infused ABS enclosures, and corrosion resistant aluminum grilles make the VMs durable, reliable and worthy of their seven-year warranty.
The VM1 ($299/pr. MSRP) and VM2 ($399/pr. MSRP) are expected to ship to retailers in Q1 2017.
“2016 marks the third year of NEAR returning to the residential market. In that brief time we’ve firmly established our position as the go-to upscale outdoor speaker vendor,” says NEAR division general manager Bill Kieltyka. “Our dealers and reps have been asking us to extend our brand and premium feature/benefits to lower price points. It was quite a challenge to retain NEAR’s signature sound quality and ruggedness at significantly lower prices; but we did it. While the new VMs are as much as 50-percent lower in price than our higher-end models, I’d say they deliver 80% of the performance, along with our legendary durability of course.”
New Amplifier
The NEAR 7XL power amplifier is a two-channel 700WPC Class D amplifier capable of either low impedance (4/8 Ohms) or 70V operation. It offers a full array of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) features that allow integrators to control and optimize the performance of outdoor loudspeaker systems.
The DSP provides high and low-pass filters (crossovers) with slope and alignment control, 7-band parametric equalization, time delay, dynamic range control, and 16 presets optimized for popular NEAR speaker systems. The 7XL amplifier is expected to ship to NEAR dealers in Q1 2017 with a $1599 MSRP.
Daily Free Speaker Drawing
Visitors to the NEAR booth who have their badges scanned will have a chance to win a free pair of NEAR LB5 outdoor speakers, retail valued at $998 per pair.
At the close of each day of the Expo, NEAR will choose a winner at random from the list of attendee badges scanned that day. The winner need not be present to win. Full drawing rules will be posted in NEAR booth 1716.
