Yamaha announces a new sound projector in its YSP line. The YSP-500 marks the new the low-end of this great product line.

The Yamaha YSP-500 is fairly compact with measurements of 610×120×220mm. The overall power of the YSP-500 is 62W. The new sound projector has sixteen 28mm and two 8mm loudspeakers.
Supported audio standards include Dolby Digital Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro Logic II (Movie, Music and Game), DTS, DTS Neo: 6 (Cinema and Music), AAC and PCM (maximum 88.2KHz, 96KHz/16bit). Yamaha will launch the YSP-500 in late October in Japan. It is not yet clear if the YSP-500 will also be offered in the United States. No pricing has been announced yet.
Via this Yamaha press-release (Japanese).

Back in 2006 I reviewed the Yamaha YSP-1000. It is still in use in my Home theater system. In August Yamaha introduced the latest sound projector systems with the YSP-4000 and YSP-3000.

The new Yamaha YSP-4000 supports 1080p-compatible HDMI, analog video to HDMI digital video up-conversion, and component / composite inputs, iPod and XM HD surround compatibility, built-in FM tuner, RS-232C for custom installation. The surround sound quality comes from 42 speakers and 120W total power which of course is much better than the YSP-500 will offer.

The Yamaha YSP-4000 sells for $1,599.95 on Amazon.com.
The Yamaha YSP-3000 sells for $999.95 on Amazon.com.