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