THX Loudness Plus, an audio technology to be built into various AV receivers, including Yamaha’s upcoming RX-Z11 (more on that later), should help those of you who have to watch TV and movies *extra quiet* for whatever reason: baby in the next room, having a fight with the wife… The technology boosts bass, surround and ambient sounds so that you don’t have to turn the volume up of your entire rig. In other words, you’ll get surround sound, but without having to violate local noise ordinances.

Speaking of that Yamaha…

Yamaha’s latest receiver goes to 11. That is, it has 11.2 channels of sounds, a number I can’t even wrap my head around. I remember when 5.1 made you the Man. It supports just about every AV format out there, with a special focus on HD—both audio and video, though calling audio “HD” is still a little strange to me—including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. A rear USB port allows for connection to various DAPs.

It’s really kinda silly to try to talk about all of its features in a quick blog post. Let me put it this way: if you can imagine the technology, it’s probably compatible with the RX-Z11. It better be, what with its $5,500 price tag.

THX Loudness Plus Delivers Reference-Level Sounds at Lower Volumes [Electronic House]