surround

Mr. Polk Audio himself, Matthew Polk, was in town last week at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan to demo his newest creation, the SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater ($1,200).

I reviewed Polk's SurroundBar 50 in June and liked it well enough, and while the SurroundBar 360 doesn't replace the older model it's more highly evolved. First off, it's a powered system so there's no need to buy an A/V receiver to use it. And as you might have judged by its name, the new one is a two-piece, speaker and console/DVD player system. Just add a display and you're good to go.

Oh, and one more thing--you won't have to add a subwoofer--the SurroundBar 360 makes a fair amount of bass on its own. When Polk played the system I assumed there was a sub somewhere in the hotel room, but in fact the skinny speaker produced a big, fat bass sound all by itself.… Read more

Back in January at CES we'd heard that Vizio, which is known for its bargain-price TVs, was looking to make a play in the home audio arena--and soon it will. Slated for a September release, the company is putting out a faux-surround system that includes a slim sound bar and wireless subwoofer for $299.

While its features don't quite match those of the Samsung HT-X810T that we recently reviewed, Vizio is pointing to that product as an indication of how good a deal its sound bar will be. The Samsung, which has a built-in DVD player and stereo … Read more

The first time I met Tomlinson Holman was in the late 1970s, when he was in the high-end audio business. He designed electronics but went on to bigger and better things when he developed THX Sound for Lucasfilm. Later, I heard his experimental 10.2 channel sound system, and I came away with a whole new appreciation of his genius. Tom Holman is Mr. Surround Sound.

His newly revised book, Surround Sound, Up and Running provides an extensive overview on the subject. It was written for recording engineers and producers, but technically inclined home theater enthusiasts will gain new insight … Read more

Turtle Beach has just unveiled its latest surround sound headset for the Xbox 360. The Ear Force X4 offers a wireless connection to the 360 (thanks to a separate base station) and it doubles as an Xbox Live communicator for chatting during multiplayer games (the microphone and headphone-to-controller tether can be removed during solo gameplay). The Ear Force X4 delivers full Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II surround decoding, and the standard optical digital and analog stereo inputs mean that it can be connected to virtually any other audiovisual source beyond the Xbox 360.

While previous Xbox-centric Ear Force … Read more

When CNET reviewed the Yamaha YSP-3000 Digital Sound Projector, we singled out its "limited video capabilities" as one of the main shortfalls of the virtual surround speaker system.

Yamaha must have listened, because the company has just unveiled an upgraded version that addresses that very issue. The YSP-3050 adds to the mix the conversion of analog to digital video, but it's essentially otherwise identical to its predecessor. That's not a bad thing, either: we've found that the Yamaha YSP line remains the best choice for delivering convincing virtual surround-effects from a single speaker, and its all-in-one design precludes the need to purchase a separate AV receiver.

According to the specs page on Yamaha's site, the YSP-3050 has a component and composite video input, in addition to its two HDMI ins. … Read more

Sony's HT-IS100, a 5.1-channel home-theater system that includes five speakers that are just 1.7 inches in diameter, will be coming to the U.S. next month. If it looks familiar, there are two reasons: The unit was announced for the Japanese market just a couple of weeks ago, and the tiny speakers were first featured in 2007's DAV-IS10, which is still widely available. (Fun fact: Sony calls the speakers "roughly the size of a golf ball" in its press release--an adjective that nearly everyone who covered the IS10 lazily cribbed. The company uses the same golf ball wording in the IS100 press release--but, oddly, included the strawberry photo above.)

Unlike that earlier model, the new HT-IS100 doesn't have a built-in disc player, or even a "head unit"--all of the electronics and amplifiers are consolidated into the system's subwoofer, so there's no need for a separate AV receiver.… Read more

If you use your PC for games, music, movies, TV, or anything else involving your ears, nothing beats a set of surround-sound speakers. Buy.com has the Logitech X-540 5.1-channel speaker system on sale for $44.99 shipped (after a $20 mail-in rebate).

The X-540 includes four wall-mountable satellite speakers, a center speaker (which has a clip for attaching to flat-panel monitors), and a subwoofer--all of which combine to pump out 70 watts of audio power. The wired remote includes a headphone jack so you can plug in when the neighbors start complaining.

CNET never officially reviewed the X-540, … Read more

Now that Blu-ray has secured its position as the one and only HD disc format, it's only natural to see it becoming more of a standard feature on desktop PCs, laptops, camcorders, and--now--home theater systems. Samsung's HT-BD2T has been available for months, while the Panasonic SC-BT100--which debuted at January's Consumer Electronics Show--is scheduled hit stores later this spring. Panasonic has yet to confirm pricing for its model, but the unit has already popped-up on J&R's Web site for $1,000 (give or take a nickel).

If the price sticks, it would appear to … Read more

Surround sound is a no-brainer for movies and games--it helps you forget you're watching a two-dimensional screen, and immerses you in the action. Movie theaters have been incorporating it for well over a decade, and sound designers for games assume a 5.1 system.

But for music, surround sound faces a number of barriers. Listeners need new equipment--speakers, a 5.1-capable amp, and a player capable of playing either SACD or DVD-Audio discs. (DVD-Audio discs can be played in traditional DVD players, so home theater owners who've already set up their systems for surround sound can hear a … Read more