Home cinema 'soundbars' are nothing new - Yamaha first introduced the concept a couple of years ago with its YSP range - but they are a neat solution for those who want better sound from a flatscreen TV without all the clutter of a full 5.1 system.
Denon's latest offering is the DHT-FS3 X-Space, yours for £700. The FS3 delivers 150W from a single speaker bar that can take an audio feed from a TV, DVD player, set-top box or PVR and generate pseudo surround sound in any room. A separate subwoofer is included in the package.
A Dolby Pro-Logic II decoder is built into the main unit, which contains six speaker drivers, seven digital amplifiers and DSP chips running Denon's new X-Space surround program.
Two speakers handle the centre channel dialogue, while the other four produce broad beams of sound to fill the room with surround sound effects.
The FS3 supports Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro-Logic II and has a Night Mode for late-night listening. The Dolby Headphone function creates surround sound effects when listening through stereo headphones.
The piano black unit is designed to match flatscreen TVs of 30in and above, and has multiple analogue and digital inputs. Users can adjust the parameters for room acoustics, listener distance and audio delay.
And if you want to hook up your iPod, you can do so using Denon's ASD-1R dock.
The Denon DHT-FS3 X-Space will be available in August.
Technorati Tags: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pro-Logic II, DTS, speaker system, surround sound
