August 21, 2007

The Year of the Soundbar for your HDTV and Home Theater

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We're calling it. Much like Gizmodo recently, the Soundbar or Faux-Suround Sound Soundbar is becoming the de-facto choice for people who don't like lots of wires running all through their living room. With a home theater Soundbar, you don't have to have 5 speakers, but instead can simulate Dolby Digital 5.1 and other 5 speaker wonders with the Soundbar which usually has a ton of speakers in them and a subwoofer.

Yamaha will be coming out with a bunch of models, the YAS-70 Budget Soundbar and the higher end YSP-4000 - which has all the bells and whistles you'd expect. Personally, the TV Snob isn't that much of a sound snob after wiring up our living room. The sound is amazing with all 5.1 speakers a blaring, but in our new theater room in the basement we're most likely going to go for a Soundbar.

Yamaha also has a lower end model the Yamaha YSP-800 82-Watt Digital Soundbar and you may want to check out the Philips AmbiSound Home Theater Sound Bar with Integrated 1080p-Upscaling DVD/MP3 Player. We like the Philips, but think that you should be able to get an HD-DVD or Blue Ray player with it.

Whatever you choose, make sure you take a walk down to your local Best Buy or other electronics store. This sold us on the fact they work and sound great.