Will,
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Do we know if the extension to 7 channels mentioned above, is with the same Cirrus Logic chipset as is in the Rotel and the Outlaw, which have both been out for the better part of a year? I'm asking if maybe Cirrus Logic has newer decoding chips now than what must have been available to the Rotel and Outlaw (excuse me, Eastech) designers late last year.
Ah, good point. For example: some surround pre-pros use SHARC processing engines as opposed the Crystal/Cirrus ones, and I remember that somewhere along the way the SHARC chips went from being (roughly) 155 mHz processors to 605 mHz speeds (source: TAG McLaren Audio). So yes, there is a possibility that the Fosgate may be using a newer Cirrus chipset, if in fact a newer one is out.

Anyone know whether Anthem's recent upgrade (hardware, not software) for their AVM-20 involved a newer Cirrus processor?
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I'm still intrigued if perhaps Fosgate might have 7.1 discrete channels decoded, as opposed to the 6.1 channels decoded by Cirrus Logic chipset on the Rotel and the Outlaw.
The second half of the sentence that you quoted above seems to indicate that it is similar to the PL II + CES modes of the 950 and that it doesn't decode seven distinct channels of sound:

"A large complement of fully-programmable surround modes, including Dolby Digital 5.1 and EX, DTS ES and Neo:6, and of course PL II – all extended to 7 channels via a Cirrus Logic chip (a true 7-channel implementation of PL II is not yet on the horizon, but if it ever appears it’s a good bet Fosgate’s FAP-T1 should be first in line for the upgrade)."

Fosgate is doing the usual marketing thing of referring to their back channel extraction as "7.1 Extended Surround"; same as Rotel did in their marketing, though these two companies are hardly the only culprits. Personally, unless I hear specifically about some new processing on a newer Cirrus/Crystal chipset, I'm going to consider the Fosgate as having 6 distinct channels for a 7 speaker layout.

BTW, posting a little late into the night aren't we? ;-) Milk and cookies, Sebastian?

Best,
Sanjay
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Sanjay