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New Models of Marantz' 2004 Receivers Will Feature SRS TruSurround(R) Headphone Technology, Setting a New Standard for Surround Sound in Home Theater Audio

Marantz continues to include SRS Labs' advanced 6.1 surround decoder technology, Circle Surround II (CS II), in its receivers, but has now increased their use of SRS Labs' technology and added the TruSurround Headphone technology to its new 2004 models SR5400, SR6400 and SR7400, considered by many industry experts to be among the top-of-the-line in home theater A/V receivers. The addition of TruSurround Headphone in the 2004 product line represents the first integration of the technology in the A/V receiver market, providing a considerable marketplace advantage for Marantz, as consumers continue to demand the very best quality and innovation in home theater products.

As recently as August of this year, HiVi magazine, a very well respected and popular electronics publication in Japan, rated SRS Labs' TruSurround technology the best virtual surround sound solution currently available. These accolades are echoing with western product reviewers as well, such as CoolMacintosh.com, "TruSurround really made a difference by producing a feeling of surround sound, especially with sounds moving from one side to the other."

TruSurround Headphone is an optimized version of SRS Labs' popular TruSurround technology and virtualizes multichannel content, such as those found in a DVD, and produces an immersive, spacious and compelling surround sound experience over regular headphones. This new technology is backward compatible to stereo, so if the content is not a multichannel source, such as a CD or an older videocassette, the listening experience will still be enhanced with a surround sound experience.

Kevin Zarow, director of marketing for Marantz says, "Incorporating CS II and TruSurround Headphone into our newest receivers proves once again our level of commitment to include the most advanced technology features in our products. We are proud to continue to work with SRS Labs to bring their versatile, next generation surround sound technology to our customers."

"We are pleased to see our TruSurround Headphone technology being adopted by superior brand names such as Marantz for their high performance receivers," said Ted Franceschi, general manager and executive vice president of licensing for SRS Labs. "This latest collaboration once again proves Marantz' commitment to its customers by forging ahead with the very latest technologies in its products."

About TruSurround Headphone

SRS TruSurround Headphone, based on the patented TruSurround system, is a technology specifically refined for headphones that repositions the sound from inside the listener's head to outside the listener's ears, creating a more natural listening experience without relying on special recording techniques or manipulation of the audio signal by phase shift or time delay. While regular sized speakers have the advantage of being optimally placed in a room and rarely move, headphones are almost exactly the opposite, presenting several difficult technical challenges for optimizing both sound placement and quality from smaller speakers. TruSurround Headphone solves these issues, providing a powerful and engaging listening experience from regular headphones that must be heard to be believed.

About TruSurround

TruSurround is the established standard for the virtualization of 5.1 surround sound over two-speaker systems and has been featured in over 15 million consumer hardware products globally including products made by Hughes Network Systems, Matsushita, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson Consumer Electronics, and Toshiba Corporation. The next generation TruSurround XT was released in November 2001 and includes SRS Dialog Clarity(TM), which improves the intelligibility and clarity of center channel information, and SRS TruBass(R), which uses patented psychoacoustic techniques to increase bass performance from any playback system, including those with a subwoofer of any size.

About Circle Surround and Circle Surround II

SRS Circle Surround is a patented and highly versatile multichannel audio format that supports a wide range of surround sound creation and playback applications. Circle Surround provides the capability to encode up to 6.1 channels of audio for transmission or storage over standard two-channel carriers such as CD and stereo broadcasts. It is backward compatible with mono, stereo and most matrix surround decoders, with playback performance subject to the limitations of the specific decoder; however, optimal results are achieved with a Circle Surround decoder.

Current broadcasters include ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN HD, FOX, FX, TNT, PBS and over a dozen programs including the 2003 Tony Awards, 2003 ESPY Awards, X Games, NFL and NBA broadcasts. The CS format is the optimum surround solution for television because it enables any network currently telecasting in stereo to now deliver up to 6.1-channel surround sound to its viewers with no change to the distribution or broadcast infrastructure.

Circle Surround decoding is capable of delivering up to 6.1 channels of audio from stereo, matrix encoded or CS-encoded material, while its successor, Circle Surround II is an even more versatile multichannel decoder, capable of delivering a high performance, 6.1 experience from mono material. CS II technology features patented post-processing techniques, SRS Dialog Clarity and TruBass, to enhance the surround sound experience.

The Circle Surround format is capable of transforming CDs, VHS tapes, AM/FM radio or MP3s into incredibly life-like surround sound. It dynamically separates instruments, vocals, and even crowd noises for a multichannel surround experience that rivals studio quality surround remastering. To date, Circle Surround decoding has been incorporated by leading hardware and software manufacturers including: Kenwood, Marantz, Theta Digital, Accuphase, Jaton, M-Audio, Orion Studios and Smart Devices. For information on licensing Circle Surround decoding, contact sales@srslabs.com.

About Marantz

Marantz was founded in 1952 by Mr. Saul B. Marantz in New York, USA. In 2002, the worldwide operations of Marantz and Denon were merged into a joint holding company, D&M Holdings Inc. Marantz still maintains its autonomy in brand, product creation, sales and marketing worldwide. In today's times where audio meets video, music is the defining ingredient, as it brings emotion into vision and puts the passion into our experiences. For Marantz, the realistic reproduction of music is our overall goal backed by our technological innovations and worldwide marketplace expertise. Marantz is a global company with three regions: Asia, Europe and the USA. The headquarters are based in Japan (Marantz Japan Inc.). The European headquarters are based in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and the American headquarters in Chicago. Our ongoing commitment to customers all over the world is to market as a leading premium brand innovative home entertainment products, appealing to consumer needs and lifestyles, through qualified distribution channels. Our heritage of technical excellence means we can create components with the ability to communicate the scale, timbre, pitch and dynamics in fact, the very essence of a recording.

About SRS Labs Inc.

Celebrating a decade in audio technology innovation, SRS Labs has become a recognized leader in the advancement of audio and voice technology. The company works with the world's top manufacturers to provide a richer entertainment experience through patented sound techniques. SRS Labs' technologies can be heard through products ranging from televisions, DVD players, cell phones, car audio systems and computers. The company also offers hardware and software tools to professionals and consumers for the creation, production and broadcast of content featuring SRS Labs' technologies. SRS Labs' wholly owned subsidiary, ValenceTech, is a Hong Kong- based semiconductor company that designs and sells custom ASICs and standard ICs to leading manufacturers worldwide. Based in Santa Ana, Calif., the company also has licensing representation in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe, and Korea. For more information about SRS Labs, Inc. please visit www.srslabs.com . The information on the aforementioned website is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

For further information, please contact: Investor, Tami Yanito, ext. 3093, tami@srslabs.com, or Media, Jennifer Drescher, ext. 5010, jenniferd@srslabs.com, both of SRS Labs, Inc., +1-949-442-1070.

Source: SRS Labs, Inc.