At this year's CEDIA Expo on the Gold Coast several vendors showed new sound bars including Boston Acoustics, Marantz and the new range of Slimstage offerings from Melbourne based distributor Sound and Image.
David Ackery of Harvey Norman said "So far there has been a limited range of sound bars however I do believe that they will appeal for a lot of environments particularly when watching sporting events".
Early Pioneers of sound bars have been Philips and Yamaha. Now they are set to compete with the likes of the Marantz ES7001 which packs left, center, and right speakers, digital amplifiers, surround image processing with listening position optimisation features all in one very stylish aluminium enclosure.
It also has HDMI and optical digital inputs and a programmable remote control. Users can set up the system by placing the SSX directly above or below a display device.
The new range of Slimstage stems come in 30" 40" and 50 inch sizes. The Slimstage delivers a surround like effect from a thin, flat-panel-friendly form factor. Despite measuring a mere 39 inches wide by 3.3 inches high by 3.4 inches deep, the single enclosure encompasses four main drivers plus nine "bass drivers," including three that Sound matters claims can hit 45Hz--low enough that some users may forgo the addition of a separate subwoofer.
