Yamaha has announced the release of a new CD Player and its companion amplifier, the CD-S700 and A-S700. The set won't replace a full-featured surround-sound system; the A-S700 amp only provides its 90 watts per channel output to a single pair of speakers. Rather than overload the amp with inputs and outputs, Yamaha is keeping things simple and focusing on signal integrity and sound quality. The amp features continuous loudness correction, a normalizing functioning to keep loud sounds from overpowering more subtle auditory details. The matching CD-S700 CD player features a silent tray loader, CD-R/RW support, and MP3 and WMA playback from either burned discs or by attaching a USB flash drive to the player's USB port. The pair will be available next month in Japan, at $700 for the A-S700 and $580 for the CD-S700.

[Via Akihabara]