Yamaha won an award at CES for their new Digital Sound Projector, which looks like another drop in the current flood of wall-mounted center speakers, but is actually a one-piece HTIB that hooks up to external AV sources. This HTIB is supposed to create a 5.1 surround effect from a single speaker. Other companies, such as Hsu and M&K, have created similar products, but the Yamaha takes things a step further by integrating the speaker with the amplification and processing circuitry.

Personally, I've never seen anything quite like this before. It has two mid/woofer drivers plus 42 tweeters, each of which are driven by a separate digital amplifier. Seems like they are using the crossover network to create time and phase alterations. On the surface, it reminds me of the Bose 901 because of how it uses wall reflections to create the ambient effect. But, this is different because the effect is not designed around mimicking a larger space, but rather to create a surround effect with one speaker. It's also different because of the integrated digital crossover and amplification, which is akin to the approach that Meridian and NHT are using with their most advanced speaker systems.

No idea how the thing actually sounds, and at $1,500 it is not exactly cheap. But, it seems like a very interesting product with a lot of the newer design approaches bundled together into a single box.



This is just weird looking when you get behind the grille. I dunno about this animated image -- kinda disturbing actually!

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/YSP1/



This is M&K's all-in-one speaker system. Unlike the Yamaha, this is a one-piece speaker that hooks up to a conventional receiver or amplifier. It too is designed to create a surround effect with only one speaker. It cost $650

http://www.mksound.com/mp4512.htm