Scheduled to be released sometime in the second quarter of 2011, Krell's Evolution 555 Blu-ray Player has a lot of people talking. First introduced at last years CES show, this $15,000 player is Krell first attempt at the Blu-ray market. Trying to set the standard in Blu-ray performance the Evolution 555 will be packed full with the latest and finest video and audio features.

Krell's Vice President of U.S Sales and Marketing, Bill McKiegan, says "Our new Blu-ray player will continue the Krell tradition of defining the ultimate standard for a product category. A ground-up Krell design, the new player will feature reference level audio and video performance coupled with renowned Krell build-quality."

It will feature the highly praised 12-bit Sigma Design VXP technology, which delivers the ultimate quality in video processing algorithms for noise reduction, scaling, image enhancement, frame rate conversion and de-interlacing. It's vertical stretch mode will remove the black bars from Cinemascope movies without additional distortion or artifacts. The aspect ration control feature will be great for systems with a 2.35:1 Constant Image Height display system.

The Evolution 555 will include the highest level of connectivity with future enhancements in mind. It has an on-board Ethernet port for easy access to the internet, updating firmware, BD-Live functionality and IP control. If you want to go wireless, there is an option for a 802.11b/g/n wireless card to be added. Online Streaming Media Services such as Hulu and Netflix will be available, as will many more potential online streaming partners in the future.

It is BD-Live compliant with 1 gigabyte of internal memory storage. An SD Card can be used if you require more memory space. And there is an option for media playback through a USB port. It has dual 1.3 HDMI outputs but is equipped with a HDMI 1.4 transmitter. Which means it can be upgraded to HDMI 1.4 to handle 3D images and 4K x 2K Resolution. Along with 3D playback, another recent change to the Evolution 555, is the upcoming release of an iPad app which will make it possible to control the player from a home network.

To get the ultimate in sound quality, the Krell Evolution Current Audio Signal Transmission analog circuitry will connect to the ESS Technology 32-bit Sabre Reference DACs. Krell's propriety Current Audio Signal Transmission, or CAST, is a way of transmitting and synchronizing audio signals between various components in the current domain. The Evolution 555 only has stereo analog outputs. So to get the latest high-resolution audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio) a HDMI connection is required.