News Release：Pioneer to Release High-Performance AV Multi-Channel Amplifier

VSA-AX10Ai-N

October 8, 2003, Tokyo, Japan - Pioneer Corporation today announced that it will introduce a new high-end AV amplifier, the VSA-AX10Ai-N, in late November in the Japanese market.

With a suggested retail price of 500,000 yen, Pioneer intends to sell 1,000 units a month. This new model represents Pioneer's top-of-the-line AV amplifier, fully demonstrating Pioneer's high-performance audio technology and it supports a variety of multi-channel surround formats, including THX ULTRA2 and DOLBY PLIIx, among others.

A world first for an audio/video amplifier, Pioneer's VSA-AX10Ai-N will playback music files encoded with Windows Media^® Audio 9 Professional (WMA9 Pro) from a Windows PC using the Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF), the driver software for which is currently under development by Microsoft Corporation. The S/PDIF is an interface for audio bit-streams that enables the direct delivery of audio file in digital compression format from one device to another, perfectly maintaining the original sound quality. WMA9 Pro is currently submitted to IEC-TC100 as a format for inclusion in the IEC61937 (S/PDIF) standard.
Pioneer developed the WMA9 Pro-decoder for use in audio/video amplifiers jointly with Microsoft Corporation.

Pioneer's new AV amplifier also incorporates the Pioneer original "Advanced Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration system (Advanced MCACC)," which provides sound field calibration to automatically offer the best listening condition in a variety of listening environments.