Look out, Yamaha / Polk / Vizio / et al., you've got another rival heating up the surround bar game. Destined to hit CEDIA 2008, soundmatters' SLIMstage40 checks in at a luscious 3.3- x 3.4- x 39-inches in size and features 170-watts from eight internal amplifiers. The device houses four Linear Magnetic Drive main / satellite speakers and a trio of down-firing Extreme-Energy subs that are assisted by six mass radiators. Furthermore, you'll find three digital audio inputs (two optical, one coaxial), three analog inputs, a headphone jack, LED-backlit panel, an RS-232 port and an IR remote. Folks interesting in dabbling in faux-surround can snag one now for $899 to $1,199, depending on whether you spring for the bundle including the SUBstage100 subwoofer.

iPod surround bars are nothing new, but iLive's hoping to catch a few eyes that normally gloss over these type things by blessing its iT188B with an oh-so-attractive $99 price tag. This iteration sports "dual built-in subwoofers," an AM / FM radio, obligatory iPod dock and an on board clock to boot. It also comes bundled with a remote control and an auxiliary input to complement the twin video inputs, video output and subwoofer out for connecting an external thumper. As you'd expect, this one's built for use underneath a flat-panel HDTV, but it shouldn't have any problems perched up on a countertop, either. You already know how badly this one's gonna hurt your wallet, but at least you've got until April to save up.

The flood of product introductions from Philips continues on, this time with the Ambisound HTS6100 5.1-channel surround bar and HTS6515 home theater in a box. The HTS6100 is essentially a lower-end repackaging of last year's HTS8100, only this time with iPod dock and $599 pricetag -- $200 less than the HTS8100 -- and the HTS6515 is the $499 baby brother version of last year's $599 HTS6600. Of course, it wouldn't be a Philips product if it didn't come with some recklessly insane hyperbole, and those ready to get their Ambisound on should be ready to "lose themselves in an immersive cinematic experience" as "the joint performance of sound and video pulls you away from reality." Why, you ask? Because "there is no risk of cluttered space or tangled speaker wires," of course. Ah, no wonder we've been trapped this hellish reality for so long. Check the HTS6600 after the break.

We got a chance to tackle and photograph the new bar of 5.1 sound that Philips is delivering, and while we can't attest to great sound quality (it wasn't on), we can say that it's got a unified design that is pretty sweet, and the integrated DVD player coupled with a slew of ports will probably please even the most discerning home theater fan -- though this clearly isn't aimed at the high-end folks. Check the gallery and experience the long-view sound system yourself.

As far as these surround sound bars go, Yamaha seems to have made quite the name for itself, but it looks like Polk Audio is offering up another iteration in its own lineup to compete. The SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater features a single 44-inch long speaker that purportedly provides a 5.1-channel experience "using patented SDA technology." Furthermore, the system looks to come with a dedicated DVD console, but we've no idea if the pair will ever be offered up separately. No word on price / availability at the moment, but we're expecting Polk to spill the rest of the beans sooner rather than later.

Yamaha's single unit surround sound bars have come a long way since the YSP-1 made its debut, and the company's latest entry, the YSP-4000, continues to up the ante, with 1080p HDMI compatibility, analog video upscaling to 1080i / 720p, XM Neural Surround compatibility, optional iPod dock, and a host of calibration modes, including one designed to make compressed audio sources sound better. Yamaha is being pretty coy with the frequency response numbers, suggesting that the YSP-4000 isn't an ass-shaking bass machine, but the 120W of power through six channels should provide plenty of clean sound for average TV and movie viewing. Available in October for $1,799.

[Via Apartment Therapy]