Photo: Yamaha

The virtual surround system is quickly making strides as the base audio component of the home entertainment system today. It has replaced the team of speakers along with messy, long wires required to connect them, with one single horizontal sound bar. With so many surround sound systems available on the market, it can be easy to select the wrong audio unit. At the end of the day, choosing a sound bar that gives watching movies at the theatre a run for its money would be the best choice, but the practicality of it all is another question. The increasing need for an audio component to complement the ever so popular flat screen has also contributed to more people looking for the horizontal audio speaker.

How it works

The sound bar works almost in the same as an orchestra does. The horizontal audio speaker, in the case of a digital sound projector, has a string of small speakers which coordinate when playing sounds to recreate a 3D audio environment. A 2.1 speaker will have two speakers and a separate subwoofer audio box to provide the listener with surround sound.

Challenging that traditional 5.1 set up with a high budget

Photo: Pochacco20

The slim design of, and space saved by, virtual surround systems has become very important for the home theatre buyer and the makers of surround systems have taken note. One sound bar that stands out from the pack in terms of performance and design is the Yamaha YSP-4000 Digital Sound Projector retailing at £829.99. Complementing the aesthetics of a slim plasma or LCD screen, the HDMI-supporting YSP-4000 proves to be a more than suitable purchase for the speaker-shy consumer.

The Yamaha sound bar produces an audio performance good enough to challenge the traditional 5.1 surround sound set-up. The YSP-4000 is however not the easiest to install, needing a few pairs of hands to complete the job. Purchasing a subwoofer with the digital sound projector for extra support is also strongly recommended for when you’re playing those low bass sounds.

Virtual surround system for the smaller budget

Photo: Pioneer

The more affordable sound bar option would be the Pioneer HTP-SB300 with Wireless Subwoofer retailing at £347.85. Producing a more than pleasing audio performance, it’s also easy on the eye and far smaller in size than the Yamaha device. The Pioneer is a 3.1 sound bar, and it would definitely be wrong to doubt the audio capabilities of the 250 watt machine against a digital sound projector or even the traditional 5.1 audio set-up.

The virtual surround system, though doing an exceptional job of mimicking a 3D audio environment, doesn’t truly replace the pure surround sound experience created by the classical 5.1 surround system.  A virtual surround system may not make the true audiophile perfectly happy, but it will come pretty close.