Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector - My thoughts
This morning my dad and I went to a hifi dealer to audition one of these. The objective was to get rid of all the speakers and general "clutter" in our lounge and replace it with this.
So what is it? I don't know if any of you are familiar with it, but it has basically been developed with the idea in mind of reproducing life-like 5.1 audio with just one box. Rubbish, you're probably thinking. "It's impossible." Not quite.
The way it works is by using "Phase array" technology. In other words there's an array of speakers (40 very small speakers to be exact, each powered by individual 2-watt amplifiers. There's also two larger mid-bass drivers which are each powered by 20-watt amplifiers) which operate by changing the phase of the little speakers individually in order to "steer" the sound accurately in different directions. I.e to the rear of the room. The speakers themselves don't move, but there is 40 of them, all working together to steer the sound. They shoot the sound waves at the walls and "bounce" them off towards the direction they're intended.
The technology has been around for a while, and I believe a company did make a similar unit a while back which was basically a huge panel the size of a plasma screen covered with little tiny speakers. It worked brilliantly in projecting the sound but didn't actually sound very good quality-wise. It also costed about £25,000.
Yamaha have now worked on this technology, put it in a box about as wide as a 42" plasma display and given it a very reasonable (IMO) price tag of £800.
The unit contains all the relevant trickery you need so it really is a "one-box" solution. The only other item you'll want is a subwoofer. Without one, you won't get any bass extension. Apart from that, simply hook it to the SPDIF (coax or optical) output from your DVD player and/or the two channel output from your telly for ProLogic II and you're good to go. Well, almost. The setup of the thing will take a while because, well, it's pretty tricky to get those beams of sound projecting exactly where you want them. The on-screen display setup is surprisingly intuitive though, you simply select the degree angle of which you want the speakers to fire, either horizontally or vertically, so you can either bounce the sound off the side walls or the ceiling. This also allows for adjustments pertaining to the height at which you've placed the unit.
There's also a lot of EQ settings to play with as well, as well as the usual adjustments you'll find on most home cinema receivers.
We were shown all this when we went for the demo this morning. Very professionally presented I must say. Well done Sevenoaks Sound and Vision!
Anyway, how well does it work?
In my humble opinion, extremely well indeed. From the moment Vanilla Sky started playing with the ambient noises in the street and the music, it was impressive. I actually stood up and walked over to their wall-mounded B&W speakers to make sure they weren't playing! That's how convinced I was.
The front soundstage was brilliant, just like being in a cinema. It was very wide, they had it projecting towards the front of the side walls so the front two "speakers" had a very wide soundstage. The rear effects were very good as well. I heard voices coming from behind me!
It also sounded excellent quality-wise. When the scene "heated up" with more complicated "in yer face" audio, it handled it well. Sounded powerful and dynamic. I was expecting a harsh and boxy sound but it sounded very solid and as if it was being reproduced by proper speakers with solid wooden cabinets, not an all-in-one device with plastic casing. Dialogue sounded rich and clear, again not harsh or boxy at all. The bass management was handled well, and the subwoofer integrated well with the rest of it, there weren't any flat spots in the frequency response that I could tell.
We played some two-channel music through it from a CD as well, and again this far exceeded my expectations. It didn't sound muddled, muffled, harsh or boxy. It didn't have the warmth of depth of a well-put together two-channel seperates system, but anyone who is expecting it to be a comparison to these is living in a dream world. That said, it performs brilliantly.
I believe that as a one-box solution for those not wanting to run tens of metres of cabling around their room and worry about mounting half a dozen speakers, it is an extremely viable solution.
Those are my thoughts, anyway! It can be had for about £730 online, and about £799 from high street retailers. I think wall-mounting brackets are included, and it can be mounded in a corner on the wall also, for those who have televisions in the corner of their lounge. (We do!).
If we do end up buying one, it will certainly be interesting (and probably frustrating!) to get it set up correctly for our big, and oddly-shaped lounge, but it is claimed to be suitable for basically any room size as you can point the speakers in any direction you want, to have them bounce off anything you want, to end up in the listening position.
Conclusion? Is it good value for money? Yes, I firmly think so. As long as you're not expecting to gain the same overall sound quality from a seperates surround system, or the positional sound of a proper multi-speaker setup, it's a great product which lives up to it's marketing "hype".
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask ;)
