I saw this on Discovery the other day but i have yet to read the articles in depth.
Here is the link to the Yamaha page about it.
I'm curious about this concept of having reflective walls as opposed to the present day idea of removing reflective surfaces, to simulate surround sound.

Ian, Alan? Any thoughts?
Ever heard it?

This type of technology was discussed in Popular Science a few years ago. I'm unsure of the implementation that Yamaha is using, but the technology goes way beyond HT apps. Marketers, for instance, are planning on using it to direct aural "sales messages" in a very narrow beam to shoppers. O, for instance, when you walk in front of the B&M beans, you'll hear about a special or why those beans are the best. Someone just three feet away to the side of you won't hear a thing. Scary when you think how you can be bombarded with marketing in that way… or how someone playing poker can get a "feed of a read" whispered in their ear from 20' away and no one else hears it.

If I remember right, the technology is based on matrixing or interweaving sounds in our spectrum to very, very high (and therefore directional) frequencies. Yamaha's implementation for HT follows what was mentioned in the article for that application: A single set-top box that reflects your sources so you hear sound as originating from different locations. I haven't read any reviews of the Yamaha, though.

This was another special on Discovery which i unfortunately missed. Most of the links are video segments for those interested and have the time to watch.
It is called the Science of Rock and Roll.

If you want gimmicks buy Bose. Looked on Yamaha website and noticed in all the pictures were teeny tiny rooms with sparse furniture

I believe Audioholics just posted a review of the speaker.

Here's a link to the review, and it did pretty well. Interesting technology. Certainly does not replace a dedicated system, but I can see this thing selling pretty well in the "nonoaudiophile" market. Good for Yamaha!

This is interesting.
I would really like to hear the unit sometime. I think my father or maybe brother would consider such a unit if it were for HT only.
The concept is not unique but obviously well done.
Personally i prefer the bookshelves on my walls over a bare surface though. It might feel kind of sparse in the HT room without anything but blank areas.

I guess some military contract fell through. This sounds like the phased-array radar off an Aegis cruiser... or (I'm guessing) the sonar array on any modern submarine.

We've got a couple of sub-drivers on the board, can anyone comment without being shot ?

hmmm...not really sure. as one of the nukes, i was more of a sub-pusher, let the coners drive. i thought we had more archaic stuff than this (in the Navy old=battle-tested and reliable) however i'll forward it to my buddy off the boat who's a sonar tech. he can "confirm or deny".

This is just a signal processing technique applied to sound instead of a phased array radar. (Where it probably gets vastly more funding.) Guarateed the technique was matured in the military/DoD realm. It's called beam steering, and depending on the hardware configuration you can generate multiple beams.

There's a serious problem with applying it to sound though, as opposed to radar. Basically, sections of the array are used to form individual beams, and a delay is added (at each transmitter in the array) to the signal to "steer" (and shape, although the potential patterns are largely affected by transmitter design) the wavefront by using constructive and destructive interference. Anyway the complication comes in because of the range of frequencies involved. Radars operate in a (relatively small) region around some center frequency, so the beam steering is simplified somewhat. To do this with sound, the delay would have to take into account the frequency, so it gets significantly more complicated.

As for the capabilities of phased array radars that the US has currently, with respect to things like Aegis, I don't really know what I can say so just search around online and I'm sure you'll find some interesting stuff.

i just had a chance to hear this system at the home entertainment expo,there was about 15 people in the room and not one person including myself was able to hear any rear effects,i think the room was a little too crowded for it to work its best due to the fact that it works off reflective surfaces..i sat in the front row of the demo room and the way the the front sound was thrown around was awesome,i was hearing sounds off the wall to my right and if i was blindfolded ,i would bet my life there was a speaker there,definetly a cool bedroom system

Aaah, memories, of the old folded, slotted waveguide antennas that came to use in the Navy in the late 50s.