It's an interesting idea, but can this technology ever produce convincing surround sound? I doubt it - to get proper surround you surely need to be surrounded by sound sources. Or can someone tell me different?

Dear Martin,
I have not sat in front of the Yamaha version of this technology but i do happen to have one of the Pioneer versions. This is a powerhouse of a speaker that weighs in at about 50kg and outputs up to 115db @1m. 420w.
I have demonstrated this unit in venues that have exceeded 40ft long and infront of an audiance of over 50 people. The technology allows each channel of sound to be focussed to somthing like a tourch beam that can be steered to where the installer wants in order to get the correct bounce. It's like playing audio snooker. All channels apart from centre and sub are reflected off of walls to hit the audiance.
Frequency response is dependant upon the speaker panel size which will dictate the largest wavelength and hence steerable frequency. It works very well. It is disconserting to walk around a room and hear sound coming from where there is no speaker!

Have just recieved my Yamaha ysp-1 and i must say it is absolutely amazing this must be the future home cinema mine is sitting under my Panasonic WD7 (wall mounted) and it looks great and keeps the misses happy!!! mine came from Bluestream av which were by far the cheapest, delivered next day,very good all round service.
Thanks Guys!!

What size room do you have it installed in, Paul? Mine is very wide and short, and I've always been sceptical that the sound reflection would work properly...

my room is also quite wide 17ft x 12ft
but it works fine especially with the auto set-up function.would be quick though a friend of mine tried to get one and apparantly there is going to be a price rise!!!!!

Really? They did that when widescreen TV came out! It was cheap for a little while, to get people's attention, then they hiked up the price! Any idea how much it'll cost in the future?

not sure get one quick

Any further thoughts on this now that the YSP-1000 is out and you've all had time to live with this speaker system?

I've just ordered one to sit on a plasma stand under a Pioneer PDP-436XDE (unfortunately it'll have to sit on the bottom shelf as it's too big for the top speaker shelf!) as a compromise to my missus. The reviews say this is a good alternative to a compact system, I've got the KEF KHT2001 'eggs', so to keep her indoors happy I've gone for it. But I'm worried about the sound. It was ok at the What Hifi? show but that's hardly the place to listen to it and I can't find one in a showroom to listen to so I've gone for it!

I'll post a review in a few weeks once I've run it in but any other comments out there?

Thanks.

No-one's updated this thread so just a quick final comment; the YSP-1000 is a great sounding neat 5* solution to sound in a smaller room. It may not be the greatest 6.1 solution but you'd have to go a long way and spend a lot more to achieve better. I also have a very happy household!