Daniel J SaitThe MusicCast concept has been in the market now since August 2015, with Yamaha keeping up the development cycle with new products (now 20 in the family) as well as firmware/software updates and new App developments.
Choosing products from across the range, installers can provide flexible systems that suit each user’s lifestyle offering support for Airplay, Bluetooth, Streaming services and Wi-Fi across the family.
In short, all MusicCast enabled products can share every single input to every other MusicCast product on the network looking to do away with streaming limitations and build genuinely bespoke systems.
Yamaha is now unveiling two products which have been asked for since the launch of the concept, a way to give users all the benefits of MusicCast by connecting it to an existing system.
Up until now this was only possible through Bluetooth or using a couple of specific models in a specific way.
Yamaha is changing that with the introduction of the WXA-50 MusicCast amp and the WXC-50 pre-amp, rack mountable models designed for one purpose: to spread MusicCast around the home.
The WXA-50 is a compact unit measuring in at just 51.5mm high and is designed to sit horizontally or vertically and can be rack mounted in a 1U space.
Two of the units can fit side by side so you can mix and match for your install needs if you have several zones of audio to control via MusicCast.
It’s essentially a small, MusicCast amplifier, with the capability to drive a stereo pair of passive speakers of your choice.
The WXC-50 is the same size as the WXA-50, but the difference here is that it’s a pre-amplifier, so instead of amplification it has a variety of connection terminals including optical, RCA and coaxial meaning you can control the WXC-50 via MusicCast and send the audio output to equipment the user already owns, whether that be a Hi-Fi amp or AVR or a soundbar.
Both units have six pre-set buttons on the remote, a highly rigid chassis that removes unwanted vibrations and trigger terminals to control other units such as amplifiers.
Installers can choose between line level pre out or variable volume output and both units have a compressed music enhancer built in to restore squashed music.
The units use less than 2W usage on standby and there is web page setup available for custom install use.
Both units are available from August 2016 with a tentative SRP of £399.95 for the WXA-50 and £299.95 for the WXC-50.
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