According to the press release, the YPS-3050 fits neatly underneath a flat-panel television and gives consumers a space-efficient option to installing multiple speakers throughout a room for immersive audio for watching movies, television and sports programming.

The new YSP-3050 still relies on surround sound emulation, integrating 21 beam drivers and two woofers plus the 23 corresponding digital amplifiers. In addition, it features three Cinema DSP settings (movie, music and sports), and some other things you wouldn’t normally get with a simple sound bar, like an analog to HDMI video upconversion, high definition video upscaling to 1080i/720p and a 1080p (24Hz and 60Hz) compatible HDMI interface with two inputs and one output to facilitate pure digital connections with the latest home theater components.

The YSP-3050 efficiently simulates a wide soundstage designed to fill the whole room with convincing surround sound regardless of where listeners are seated. The new sound bar includes settings such as 5-Beam, 3-Beam, 3-Beam + Stereo, 2- channel Stereo, My Beam, 5-Channel Stereo and My Surround modes. My Surround setting is present in order to provide surround sound to even the most difficult installation environments where walls are missing or are covered with unsuitable materials. My Beam mode is specifically designed to focus the sound at a specific listening position, so the listener can hear all program audio clearly, including dialog, without disturbing others in the room.

The YSP-3050 is already available for a suggested retail price of $1,399.95

The first thing you notice when you see the G1 Giya would probably be the cool shape of the enclosure. All of Vivid’s speakers are made using advanced, patented cabinet construction and bass loading. The new Vivid Giya’s is a bit different when compared to Vivid’s previous designs. Its dual 12″ woofers are mounted on the sides with their magnets mechanically coupled. Vivid explains that the big twirl is used to load the bass and prevent audible standing waves. That is supposed to improve the overall quality of the bass, making it more profound.

Vivid’s new bass woofers are designed in-house and built from aluminum and use a unique short coil, long gap magnet construction. The tweeter and midrange domes use Vivid’s patented tube loading to achieve reduction in back waves and superior performance.

Here are some quick specs:

- Frequency Range: 23Hz to 44kHz (30Hz – 40kHz +/- 2dB)
- Sensitivity: 91dB, 6 ohm nominal, 4 ohm minimum
- Power handling: 800 watts
- Weight: 154lbs
- Size: 67″h x 14″w x 31.5″ d

You wouldn’t expect exotic cars to come cheap. However, when compared to those $100k speakers, Giya features a pretty “decent” $54,000 price tag.

The Coliseum is a successful combination of custom designed woofers and compression drivers mounted on Yorkville’s exclusive ABS horns. The design includes less complex crossover networks which have proven to be an excellent compromise between performance and price over the years.
The wooden enclosures of the Coliseum models are constructed of highly rigid 15mm (.59″) Baltic Birch plywood. They feature an optimized trapezoidal shape so they can be conducive to array mounting and minimize lobing difficulties. Flypoints are steel reinforced and engineered to allow easy, flexible and safe enclosure suspension.

Here are some highlights for the Coliseum series:

• Full range of installation specific models ranging from 5 watt wall speakers to 800 watt Unity™ cabinets
• 70V option available on most models
• Attractive and discrete white paintable finish
• A variety of custom installation hardware available for all models

The most expensive products in the Coliseum range do not exceed several hundreds of $, but you can rest assured that you’ll get the best bang for your buck. For more information, check out the Yorkville site.

Druid MK4 is actually a complete rework of our ground-breaking Druid loudspeaker and features a proprietary super-tweeter CNC machined from billet aluminum. ZU wanted to provide hi-fi sound for budget audiophiles and decided to include their own B3 silver alloy internal cabling. They have also reengineered the inner connector-to-cable-to-voice-coil termination with the elimination of solder joints. Furthermore, they have raised the tolerance levels on the Zu260FR-G2 driver and the appropriate motor.

The new ZU-T1super-tweeter was reinforced with a high pass network and silver alloy leadouts. Additionally, the super-tweeter leadouts have been shortened to 25cm and terminated directly with the main B3 harness at the voice coil.

All these improvements give the Druid MK4 an increased resolution, bass extension, better amplitude linearity with reduced noise, overall better sound detail, soundstage depth and texture, more instrument color and a playback presence that really recreates the dynamic range of a live performance.

The Druid MK4 can be purchased directly from the ZU Audio online page for $3,400/pair. For more details and tech specs, check out this PDF document.

It should, because it integrates some proprietary technologies that are supposed to deliver the best sound quality. First of all, Thor’s Hammer integrates a Dual-Spider driver design that is based on long-throw woofers. These long-throw woofers allow Thor’s Hammer to achieve its 10 Hz response in a relatively compact enclosure. The dual-spider driver provides improved stiffness for the woofer cones by restricting woofer excursions to a single plane of motion.

Other advanced technologies used with the Hammer include the unique Wilson Controller which is the key to integrating Thor’s Hammer with an entire music system. In case you want to add the Hammer to your existing music system, the Controller can act as both a crossover and equalizer, and if you got a hybrid music/home theatre system, the Controller can switch between theater and music modes, dramatically optimizing both. The Controller accepts both single-ended and balanced inputs and outputs.

Here are the tech specs:

- Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms
- Efficiency: 93 dB (2.0 Volts @ 1 meter)
- Woofer: 2 X 15 inch dual-spider
- Enclosure Type: Dual Ported
- Frequency Range: 10 to 150 Hz. (+0, – 3dB)

Thor’s Hammer can be found at online retailers for about $21,000. For more info, check out the Wilson Audio website.

The guys over at Wilson Benesch claim that Chimera is a synthesis of the best materials and drive units ever seen in any dynamic loudspeaker system. In order to provide the best possible loudspeaker, Wilson Benesch decided to make the enclosures out of carbon fiber. Moreover, to match the performance of the enclosure, Wilson Benesch invested its own and European funding in excess of £250,000 in the development of a completely new multi role, dynamic driver technology. Thus, they came up with the Isobaric Tactic system that dramatically improves the sound quality.

Here are some of the most important benefits that come with the Isobaric Tactic technology:

1. Matchless accuracy.
2. The most powerful low frequency composite system in the world.
3. Near pistonic function of the diaphragm that avoids the break-up problems commonly accepted in conventional systems.
4. Third order non-linearities virtually cancelled out.
5. In the range of its operation, the diaphragm can be seen to have the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio in the world.
6. Solid defense against the passage of out-of-phase energy that must be confined within the enclosure.

For tech specs, avialability and pricing check out the official WIlson Benesch page.

I’m not going to tell you its price for now. Instead, I’ll point out that, for that high price, the guys over at Von Schweikert tried to design the world’s best speaker system which was to meet the following extreme demands:

• Extremely wide bandwidth (10 Hz to 100,000 Hz)
• Extremely low distortion (less than 0.1%)
• Extremely high dynamic range (96 dB @ one watt/one meter sensitivity)
• Holographic, three-dimensional image recreation
• Extremely high output levels without strain

Reviews have noted that the designers did a pretty good work in order to deliver quality close to those extreme demands. However, there are audiophiles who think the high price is not quite justified by the sheer specs of this four-tower system. Speaking of tech specs, here’s a list with the highlights:

- SIZE: 72″ tall x 18″ wide x 18″ deep (woofer towers); 72″ tall x 10″ wide x 18″ deep (mains).
- WEIGHT: 300 lbs (woofer towers), 230 lbs (main towers).
- IMPEDANCE: 8 ohms nominal, 6 ohms min.
- SENSITIVITY: 96 dB @ one watt/one meter.
- POWER RATING: 100 watts to 1,000 watts per main tower recommended.
- SUBWOOFER AMPLIFIERS: (TWO included): 1,000 watts r.m.s. minimum, 2,000 watts peak.
- FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10 Hz to 100,000 Hz (-10dB), 20 Hz to 50 kHz (-3dB).
- WARRANTY: 10 years from date of purchase, excluding burnt voice coils due to abuse.
- CABINET DESIGN: Multi-layer composite, with 1″ MDF and 1″ acoustic rubber, sealed box
- CABINET FINISH: Gloss black or gloss silver finish

Alright, maybe you’re not dying to know about the price, but here it is anyway: $85,000.

Also known as the Dancer 8571 II, this system is claimed to be offering the best value in this family. This is possible thanks to the seamless integration of the Beryllium tweeter and midrange which are producing pitch-perfect, remarkably dense sound. The “afordable” price made this system the preferred choice of many musicians. It is also excellent for both 2-channel and HT applications and the best features include include a massive 2-1/2-inch-thick front baffle, fine-furniture quality craftsmanship and time/phase-aligned drivers.

Want the complete tech specs? Here you go:

- 3-way system: Be dome tweeter 1.25″ (9980-20BeA),
- mid-low woofer 7″ (8948A), and low-bass woofer 8″ (8955A)
- sensitivity: 87 dB @ 1 watt / 1m
- nominal impedance: 8 ohms
- frequency response (-3 dB): 26 Hz ~ 40 kHz
- power handling: 150 watts
- crossover frequencies: 282 Hz and 2.52 kHz
- weight: 87.3 kgs (including base)
- dimensions (w x d x h): 31.5 cm x 76 cm x 121.5 cm

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the price. Usher is suggesting a $6,900.00 retail price for a pair of these.

Wharfedale designed the Zaldek line of speakers as a high-octane blend of adrenaline and power with serious hi-fi undertones. Admittedly, the Zaldek series looks a bit different when comparing with the usual serious stuff. It comes with a unique style and horn-loaded mid-range. In case a pair of these floorstanding models won’t prove enough for you audio cravings, you can always go the 5.1 way, throwing in a couple of matching rear channels plus a centre channel and a special matching subwoofer.

The interesting design integrates hand-wound, massively oversized voice coils to provide the impetus for the proprietary ultra-lightweight ‘True Blue’ polypropylene laminate sandwich cones. These cones are proficient in delivering controlled bass response with enough dynamic power to impress even the most hedonistic hardcore rockers.

Another outstanding characteristic for the Zaldek series is the horn-loaded tweeter which is capable of providing both excellent directivity and very low distortion. The tweeters themselves are made of Neodymium, and are ferro-fluid cooled to produce a clean, crisp treble, with reduced distortions.

The cabinet is made of a special MDF material which ensures good sound reproduction with reduced resonance.

Here is the list of tech specs for the Zaldek Z-1000 model:

- Bass: 8″ 200mm
- Horn Power: 20-175W
- Nominal Impedance: 6ohm
- Sensitivity: 90dB for 2.83v at 1m
- Frequency: 35-23k @ -6dB
- Crossover: 2kHz & 7kHz
- Frequency: Fb40Hz
- Dimensions: 230×750x320

Onkyo’s new home entertainment system that looks to be specifically designed for people who think extra wires might not be a good idea for their house, while wireless speakers cost a fortune. The new system is dubbed GKW-2.1HD and consists of two 30W front stereo speakers, a 60W subwoofer plus a spiffy control unit and a remote for comfy use. It comes with standard support for 2.1HD audio, but Onkyo also made it possible for you to later add a few extra speakers in case you really need a 5.1-channel surround sound setup.

The main connectors are based on the HDMI 1.3 standard, with two inputs and a single output. There are also connections for adding in the extra surround speakers. The GKW-2.1HD also supports audio formats such as Dolby NR TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, taking full advantage of the integrated 24-bit/192kHz DACs.

The GKW-2.1HD is expect it to hit worldwide stores on June 21st for around $509.