Yahama has two new flagship receivers, the RX-Z1 and RX-Z9 . Both have the standard 6.1/7.1 formats to produce a surround back channel -- Dolby EX, DTS ES, Pro Logic II, and DTS:NEO6. The RX-Z1 is listed as an 8.1 receiver -- they appear to be providing a single rear center channel (similar to the rear center channel on the Outlaw 1050, although the 1050 uses a Zoran chipset rather than Dolby EX or DTS ES because neither were available for licensing at the time) rather than the two surround back speakers that have become more typical recently. The surround back speakers are generally mono, anyway (except for a few cases like Logic 7), but most people have reportedly preferred to use two surround back speakers when possible. In addition to that rear center (which gets them to 6.1, of course), they have retained an old Yamaha proprietary processing mode that creates two "front effect" channels. This has been around on some higher-end Yamaha receivers for years now, and is not indicative of an industry-wide development. The RX-Z9, by the way, is listed as being "9.1" -- it provides two surround back channels instead of the single rear center of the RX-Z1.

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