As I become more and more enthralled by the simple home theatre setup fake surround sound bars provide, I'm surprised to see high-end Marantz get into the game that is otherwise known for midrange players. (This was announced at CEDIA, but I missed it then, and it deserves your attention now). Like the Yamaha YSP series, it uses delays and volume tweaks to emulate surround sounds; unlike the YSP-4000, it only has 6 speakers, a pair of tweeters, mids and lows, with 60 watts total, so you're not going to likely get the same granular, discrete, faux-surround channel effect that the Yammy does using its 42 discrete drivers. They both have HDMI Inputs, but I have no idea if the Marantz does upscaling or audio surround. But there is a price differential of $1299 for the Marantz vs $1800 for the Yamaha. One thing: I don't like the distracting silver strip on the front. [Marantz]

Tags: audio | entertainment | home | marantz | soundbars | speakers | surround sound