We at Denon were deeply saddened to hear that Ray Dolby, surround-sound pioneer and creator of his eponymous audio company, passed away at his home in California on 12 September 2013, age 80.

Mr Dolby’s work utterly reshaped the audio landscape both for cinema audiences and those with home hi-fi set-ups. Some of his best-known successes were to reduce the hiss in cassette recordings - via the famous B and C noise reduction systems - as well as bringing the soundtrack of sci-fi blockbusters, such as Star Wars to life. The latter involved the creation of surround sound technologies for cinema theatres, and this soon benefited those in the home. Codecs such as Pro Logic and Dolby Digital completely revolutionised the way we experienced movies.

Mr Dolby will be missed but his spirit, passion and his outstanding contribution to the world of music and movies, lives on in our homes through almost every Denon's audio visual product.