People still don’t believe me when I claim I can duplicate surround sound with only two speakers. Incredulously, they yell “you only get left and right that way!” But you only have two ears on your head, and with them, you can distinguish more than just left and right. The key is in processing the sound, using delays and other algorithms to trick your ears into hearing believable surround sound.

Yamaha takes advantage of this idea in its YSP “sound projector” line of speakers. The newly released flagship YSP-4000 uses forty 2W beam tweeters for the highs and two 20W midbass drivers. It makes sense to have more tweeters since high frequency sounds have more directionality. An onboard DSP processes the surround sound. An additional subwoofer is necessary to provide adequate bass response.

Retailing for $1800, the YSP-4000 has 2 HDMI in/outputs and is compatible with both iPod and XM radio.

The less powerful YSP-3000 and YSP-900 both use 21 tweeters and two midbass drivers and retails for a much cheaper $1200 and $900, respectively.

Two complementary subwoofers were also released, the YST-FSW150 and YST-FSW050. Both models sport a slim design, and have down-firing 130W and 100W drivers, respectively.

More at Gizmodo.

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