What ever happened with the SSP-900?

[Z Man]

I remember reading sometime back that Classe' had an SSP-900 in the works that was supposed to be the "be all and end all of AV controllers". What ever became of that one? Is it still in development or is it one of those ideas that just will never be? From early prototype photos it sure looked like one awesome piece of engineering.

[RebelMan]

Classe' had plans to release it last year but made a paradigm shift to make an audio only product. What was the SSP-900 is now essentially the SSP-800 minus the video processing boards. The SSP-800 will still switch and transcode all video digitally but it won't scale and deinterlace.

The SSP-900 is an advanced processor using a fully modular design circuit topology. It was complex and expensive to build which could potentially impact reliability and marketability. Classe' used the SSP-900 as a tool to push SSP technology and associated costs past the envelope. The research and development that went into the SSP-900 ultimately led to the leaner and meaner SSP-800 machine.

[Z Man]

It sure would have been something to have seen the SSP-900 actually come to market. With its video and audio capabilities, it would have been up there with the likes of the Mark Levinson no. 40 controller.

But with a price of $25,000 or so, not many people would have been able to afford it. The SSP-800 on the other hand, even without video processing technology, is a bargain at its $8,000 price. If it had offered TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, and audio streaming capability, this controller would be my top pick.