NHT Offers Advance Preview of Upcoming DSP Speaker System

BENICIA, CA, February 10, 2004 - As previewed at the January Consumer Electronics Show (CES), NHT will soon unveil its first speaker system incorporating digital signal processing (DSP).

"Loudspeaker drivers have come as far as any mechanical technology can take them," said Chris Byrne, NHT's co-founder and Director of Product Development and Marketing, Rockford Home Group. "After all the refinements and improvements of the past 60 years, DSP presents a path for correcting system behavior that will allow us to meet consumer demands for higher performance, smaller systems that are flexible in placement considerations and ultimately lead to significantly enhanced room correction."

NHT's first DSP system consists of a small satellite speaker, powered subwoofer and an outboard electronic component housing a DSP processor and class D amplifiers. The system is designed as a platform for driver correction, digital crossover designs, and overall phase correction, representing an open platform that will allow the company to add further software upgrades in the form of DSP-based features as they become available.

Though final specifications, cosmetics and related design elements are TBA, the DSP satellite will be a small, attractive two-way satellite incorporating a 5.25" woofer and 1" tweeter, offering a frequency range of 80Hz - 20kHz. The cabinet is optimized for the respective drivers for the best possible dispersion. Satellites will be sold separately so that a variety of multi-channel systems can be assembled.

In addition, NHT will offer an exceptionally compact subwoofer with two opposed 10" active drivers powered by a 400W class D amplifier. The subwoofer will incorporate wireless and standard (wired) inputs. The wireless transmitter allows two-channel wireless transmission for either stereo bass or multiple home theater subwoofers.

The heart of the system is a DSP processor/amp component, containing four class D amplifiers that provide bi-amplification of stereo channels. Driver frequency response and equalization, phase response correction, and linear phase crossover will be accomplished via proprietary, low latency digital processing.

The DSP processor/amplifier will include USB and microphone inputs that, in the near future, will allow installers and other advanced users to access the DSP software for room correction.

NHT's DSP system is expected to come to market in early Q3 '04. Additional details, photos, and demonstrations will be available in Q2.

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NHT (Now Hear This) is a brand name of Rockford Corporation. Rockford Corporation is based in Tempe , Ariz. and is a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ stock symbol ROFO. Company website can be viewed at www.nhthifi.com and www.rockfordcorp.com .