CES 2007: Philips Ambisound HTS8100 home cinema system

Philips has been showing off its new HTS8100 Ambisound home cinema system, which provides 5.1 surround sound from a one-piece system that’s just five inches thick, and includes an amplifier and DVD player.

The five channels are built into a single horizontal sound bar, which apparently uses (deep breath) array processing, precise driver positioning and psycho-acoustic innovation to pump out proper surround sound without bouncing anything off walls. I like psycho-acoustic innovation, it sounds like a cool musical genre too.

The HTS8100 also plays CDs, and Philips reckons its sleek design means it’ll go well with whatever flat-screen telly you’ve got in your living room – although naturally, Philips says it’s the ideal partner if you already have an Ambilight TV. It’s coming out by the summer in the US, and will sell for $999. We’ll ferret out a UK release date tomorrow when we check out Philips’ stand.

The company also announced another Ambisound system which is two-speaker, the HTS6600, which has plenty of the whizzy tech inside, but will sell for $599 when it comes out in the second quarter of 2007.

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.