Enjoy 5.1 Surround Sound with Just 1 Speaker

The lack of personal space is something that affects us all, since the size of our houses, especially in crowded areas, is becoming smaller and smaller. And since Japan is one of the countries with the smallest living space (in square meters) per inhabitant, the people from Yamaha have come up with the very intelligent idea of creating a speaker that can take advantage of this situation, and use the walls in order to create a surround effect. Enters the Yamaha YSP-900 digital sound projector, a device that, according to its manufacturers, is actually capable of simulating different audio modes, such as 2.1 or 5.1, without requiring any extra-speakers.

Thus, the system uses a system of IR beams (MyBeam and IntelliBeam systems, with 3 to 5 individual beams each) for triangulating the user's position (actually, the position of the user's remote control) and continuously adapting the music output in order to provide a very natural and high-quality surround sound. It's also worth mentioning that this thing has been designed for 32" TVs, exactly the type of sets you'll find in a smaller apartment.

Whether this goal is achievable and whether the general effect is exactly the one touted by the manufacturers is a whole different story, but I guess that the people from Yamaha might have come up with a pretty good device, especially if we take into account their background as manufacturers of Hi-Fi music devices.

Here are the most important technical and commercial features the Yamaha YSP-900 has to offer:

- Dimensions: 800 mm x 153 mm x 115 mm; - Mass: 9.0 kilograms; - Power: 82W; - Speakers: 2 x 10cm woofer speakers; 2 x 4 cm normal speakers; - Inputs: 2 analog audio jacks, 2 digital audio jacks; - Outputs: 1 pre-amped jack for an external woofer; - Comes with remote control.

There's no word on the pricing yet, but we'll probably find out pretty soon just how much we'll have to cough up (at least the lucky people from Japan will) in order to get one, since the official launch date is February 22. In any case, if it really does what's supposed to, this device could prove to be quite useful, especially for those people who can't afford a 5.1 Hi-Fi Surround system.

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