Yamaha's new YSP-4000 Surround Bar

Yamaha introduced today a new audio bar that gives you "sound projector" faux-surround bars. The YSP-4000 comes with pass-through HDMI and analog/720p/1080i that upscales to 1080p, and is also iPod and XM ready.

The guys at Gizmodo got there hands on one, and this is what they had to say:

The "speakers (are) all coordinated by a DSP, and by tweaking delay and volume, convincingly eliciting sweeping surround audio that seems to come from all 360 degrees, and then some. There are "seven Cinema DSP programs (three movie, three music and one sports)" and "Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6," all of which are selectable via the remote and on screen display or LCD."

All at a cost of $1800, which isn't bad considering how much you can spend on a high end system.

To read all of the dirty details, hit the click. [Gizmodo]

Marantz OPSODIS ES7001: One bar to rule them all

Marantz returns with their 'off the wall' bouncing OPSODIS (OPtimal SOurce DIStribution) Technology packed into the ES7001. Marnatz sound bar is aimed to directly compete with Yamaha's YSP series of sound projectors.

As such, they've put all the drivers, amps, and woofers into one single housing that has the ability to redirect the 'sweet spot'.

It comes with 2 HDMI (Ver.1.1) and 3x digital optical inputs. The space saving kit will set you back a cool $1,020 when it ships in June. An optional $197 50W sub woofer and $411 AV rack are available if you want to round out everything.