Most sound bars feature a budget-level price and budget-level sound, but Yamaha is one of the few companies still dedicated to the idea that high quality sound can come from a single speaker enclosure. For 2010, the company has rolled out two new high-end Digital Sound Projectors, the YSP-4100 ($1,900 list price) and YSP-5100 ($2,200 list price). Both models are what we refer to as "sound bar home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems", which means they're self-powered and don't require a separate AV receiver. The two models break down as follows:
Key features of the Yamaha YSP-4100:
- 40 beam drivers and two woofers
- 4 HDMI inputs
- Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
- Sirius-ready, built-in FM tuner
- Automatic speaker calibration
- $1,900 list price; currently available
Key step-up features of the Yamaha YSP-5100:
- Two tweeters
- $2,200 list price; currently available
While CNET has not reviewed either model yet, we have reviewed one of their predecessor, the YSP-4000, which should give some indication of how we expect the new models to perform.