There’s something fishy about Yamaha. All I see is sound bars from the Japanese as of lately. Are they trying to hint at a reorientation towards home theatre stuff? I don’t really believe that’s the case, but their latest sound bar dubbed YSP-3050 still leaves me wondering.

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

I left the search for obscure brand names for some other time and remembered that there’s the old and prestigious Yamaha out there. Yamaha has always provided top quality musical instruments and sound apparel, I cannot explain how exactly this thing eluded me for all this time. Anyhow, I laid my eyes onto the NS-777 floor standing loudspeakers and this is what I found out about them.

The NS-777 is a three-way/four-driver bass reflex speaker system that has been designed specifically for home theater applications. The floor standing speaker integrates a pair of 8" Polymer-Injected Mica Diaphragm (PMD) cone woofers, a 5" midrange cone driver and a single 1” aluminum dome tweeter. In order to confer outstanding imagining capabilities, Yamaha utilized the exclusive Waveguide horn technology to boost the midrange and tweeter power.

The Waveguide horn technology allows the sound to reach your ears with the sound wave produced by the speakers rather than reflected off the walls. The result is a clearer and more precise sense of sound direction and placement.

Another interesting feature is the internal wiring of the speaker system. Yamaha ensured optimum sound quality by internally wiring some of the components with Monster Cable. This amounts into a clean, clear signal from the crossover network to the speaker drivers.

Here are some technical specs:

• INPUT POWER: 100 watts nominal, 250 watts music power
• FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 30 Hz-35kHz
• SENSITIVITY: 89dB/2.83v/1m
• IMPEDANCE: 6 ohms
• DIMENSIONS: (W x H x D) 10-7/8” x 43-5/16” x 15-3/8”
• WEIGHT: 53.8 lbs

No need to skip the price-tag. The NS-777 is actually a budget loudspeaker and you can find it online for as low as $175.41.

One of the latest additions to the Yamaha in-wall speaker system series is the NS-IW960 model which is built as a 2-way in-wall which, according to the manufacturer, would best fit custom professionals.

Available at $200, the system has an almost invisible design and its aspect matches any home theater environment, while featuring a customized high quality crossover network that minimizes distortion.

Among the main characteristics we have dual 6.5-inch Kevlar Cone Woofers, 1-inch titanium dome tweeter, swivel tweeter, gold-plated push-type speaker terminals, 150W maximum input capability and paintable grill with protective cover.

The frequency is of 50Hz-28 KHz, with 88 dB/2.83 v/1 m sensitivity, an input power of 150W/50W and 8 Ohms impedance.

At $1,799.95 each we have two powerful speakers from Yahama built to deliver an outstanding dynamic range and deep bass output, from a 3-way, floor-standing, dual-woofer speaker system.
Soavo 1 comes with the exclusive Advanced PMD diaphragm, an aluminum dome DC-Diaphragm tweeter, edge-wound ribbon wire voice coil, neodymium midrange magnet and carved wooden port.

The cabinet consists of non-parallel surfaces, a 3-way mitered construction, the 2-chamber cabinet having a vertical bracing, chamfered tweeter baffle and die cast aluminum tweeter plate and birch veneer cabinet with open-pore finish.
The system uses independent direct crossover connection and the highest quality parts with Solen capacitor.

Other features include:
- Dual 6-1/2-inch Advanced PMD Cone Woofers
- 5-inch Advanced PMD Cone midrange driver
- 1-inch (3cm) aluminum dome tweeters
- Direct Bobin system
- DC-Diagram
- Magnetic shielding
- Read wood finish
- Gold-plated brass extruded terminals
- 35 Hz - 50 kHz frequency response
- 89 dB/2.83 V/1 m sensitivity
- 200W / 50W maximum/nominal input power
- 500 Hz / 5 kHz crossover frequencies
- 6 Ohms impedance
- 13-3/4inch x 41-3/8inch x 19-3/16inch
- 59.5 lbs.