Hi Otto
Really good question and you strike at the heart at what we are about. I agree we have a great design team and their talents could be put to use producing another multichannel 7-60.n style receiver with a center channel with all the crappy existing surround formats built in including Atmos. The issue to us is why would we if we really believe they are really wrong and are pushing more and more complexity and incompatibility with the greatest format STEREO.
A week ago I was treated to a demo of the latest Dolby Atmos and was stunned to find the racing cars in the scene were on the roof! Suffice to say I walked out. We are currently seeing a repeat of what happened in the late 1970's with ever growing market confusion of systems and formats with an overall direction of if it does not work with 4 channels, try 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, 11.2.....60 channel. Fact is the main stream markets have really got surround wrong.
So the real question is why would a small company located in the arse end of the world come out with yet another "me to" clone surround sound multi channel receiver monster? I am actually not trying to tackle the top end audiophile market, did that 10 years ago and it is a high risk path that mostly leads to poverty in a market where real hifi is dying due to crappy music, mp3, video and the trend away from albums.
If you take a look at our Y2 AND Y4 systems you will note that they are in fact BOOKSHELF electrostatics as I am in fact targeting the mass consumer market. Lets ignore the Involve surround sound decode, lets ignore the world first sit anywhere -no sweet spot technology. We are really selling STYLE AND SIMPLICITY.
The reaction of female customers has been of universal wow and I have witnessed females dragging their male friends to look at the Y systems. The semi see through 5 mm flat profile and clean (B+O style) lines grabs them. I have included a recent photo of how the Y4 looks in a home, the target is LOOKS!
Unfortunately only one member of QQ has experienced our full systems including encode / decode but suffice to say we have a very large and expensive home theatre set up where we asked a local supplier to fit it out with the best most expensive 7.1 Dolby/ DTS style system they could (around $40,000). In parallel we run our (way cheaper system) that we switch in an A/B instant manner - we decode from the stereo L/R. So far all customers and guests greatly prefer the Involve system.
We offer looks, small size, universal stereo operation, no additional bandwidth, works with compressed files and complete simplicity of front and rear panels. Sounds like a winner to this little black duck (actually not so little if truth be known).
My point is if I wandered into a meeting in among a sea of 100 grey suited types, I prefer to be the one in a Hawaiian shirt! If a small company down under is to stand out from a very boring "me to" pack we really need to be different.
Right now we have no shortage of customers screaming for us to supply the Y4 and Y2 systems, our problem is currently a lack of financial ability to fund manufacture. Don't worry, I think MAJOR backing is weeks of.
Regards
Chucky