Yamaha's YSP range of digital sound projectors was received with welcoming ears by many, combining as they do a full 5.1 speaker setup in one albeit imposing unit. And now Philips has announced its intention to go one better with the very wordy HTS8100 Ambisound SoundBar Home Cinema System.
A single, oblong, side-mounted speaker designed to sit flat under your TV, it combines a five-channel speaker system with DVD and CD player, with only the subwoofer a separate unit. There's plenty of technology packed into that 13cm thin box too, with DVD upscaling to 1080p via the HDMI socket and Faroudja DCDi processing.
Sonically the surround sound doesn't work by reflecting audio off the walls to envelop the listener as with the Yamaha YSP range but by using six drivers mounted in the sound bar that output both rear and front channels simultaneously. This will produce what Philips promises to be an 'immersive, high-impact surround effect'.
Launched in July for around £700, the Philips is a typically good looking slice of the AV pie, and if you're tired of the wife nagging you about wires and clutter around your treasured home cinema system, it could provide a headache-saving alternative to the traditional setup.
