Yamaha Digital Sound Projectors

[inefficient]

Does anyone else use one of these Sound Projectors?

I just bought a Yamaha YSP-800 for 64,000円 JPN ($554 USD) Plus a 130W Yamaha sub woofer for about $140 USD.

It's one of those sound projectors with lots of small drivers to simulate 5.1 surround sound by cleverly bouncing sounds off the walls of the listening space..

An updated version of this product just came out last month - the YSP-900 and the YSP-1100. So that drove the prices down on this model quite a bit. But the core features are identical. And there was a 20% discount!

I wanted to design and build a classic 5.1 speaker home theater setup for a long time. I was willing to drop a couple grand on it. But my media room in my Tokyo apartment is is just too small to make that kind of setup sensible any way no matter how hard I looked at it. So I finally caved and ended up buying this. I would have preferred the larger 40 driver version the YSP-1100, but that one is over a meter, and this one fits beautifully in the AV shelving I already have.

I read some reviews before hand and everyone seemed very impressed so it was encouraging. audioholics.com did a review of the original 40 driver version model the YSP-1 link and they were impressed by the surround sound performance. I was surprised to hear it actually worked at all, especially with a pro listening to it. And they also raved about the YSP-1100 link But I could not find any reviews for gaming with kind of setup though.

I have it hooked up directly to my PS3 and I'll write a full review once I get a good feel of it. Right now I still need to figure out the optimal configuration for it.

 

[Mariner]

I bought a YSP-900 last week. Unfortunately, I was very busy over the course of the weekend and haven't had time to set it up as yet.

I could have purchased a YSP-1000 for less money than YSP-900 but unfortunately they are just too big to fit on my TV-stand.

I'm not a huge audiophile by any means but I'm hopeful that the Yamaha will provide good quality sound. It'll be nice to be able to reduce number of cables which currently clutter up the space behind my TV.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

I bought a YSP-900 last week. Unfortunately, I was very busy over the course of the weekend and haven't had time to set it up as yet.

I could have purchased a YSP-1000 for less money than YSP-900 but unfortunately they are just too big to fit on my TV-stand.

I'm not a huge audiophile by any means but I'm hopeful that the Yamaha will provide good quality sound. It'll be nice to be able to reduce number of cables which currently clutter up the space behind my TV.

What is wrong with you! You get a new gadget and don't have time to use it?! Make time damnit!

CC

 

[Mariner]

What is wrong with you! You get a new gadget and don't have time to use it?! Make time damnit!

CC

I'm truly ashamed to say that it is still in the box.

The problem is that I need to give the front room a proper spring clean before I shift all the furniture around and re-arrange my home cinema system. I'm a lazy so-and-so and therefore haven't got around to this yet!

Not helped by the fact that there has been so much footy to watch on TV this week...

 

[Randell]

I've had a YSP-800 for a year now. Its very good - but its not surroudn sound. having said that, my room is too small for me to have my sofa forward from the wall to get the sound bounced behind me so I can only have the 3beam+stereo set-up.

Main thing - its neat nature keeps the wife happy.

 

[inefficient]

Ok these are my impressions so far.

It is far far better than any stereo speaker or 2.1 setup. But it can't compete with a decent 6 piece 5.1 surround set up.

The auto configuration is not great. You have to tweak the manual settings to get it sounding good.

It has been a bit tricky to get the Rears sounding like rear speakers. But it does sort of work. I can hear the sound bouncing off the wall behind me. The problem is I can still hear the sound from the center too.

This is probably because the shape of my room is not that optimal. And I am fairly close to the unit itself (about 2 meters). Also the rear wall is quite near my head. So for example if I just wanted to hear Rear Left, I hear it bounced off the walls to hit me rear left but I can also clearly hear the sound from the center itself. So it's not a true rear left, it will always be like rear + center.

But I guess the important thing is that when you are mixing all 5 channels, you really can hear sound from all 5 directions around you. Everything is so much more alive when coming at you from all those directions.

I played some Resistance on it. I heard all kinds of ambient sounds I had never heard before. When the bullets start whizzing by it's so much more vivid. The experience was so different I might have to play through it a 3rd time. Virtua Fighter 5 was a totally different experience audio wise. I was quite surprised.

There is a demo DVD that comes with the unit. It gives you some really cool examples of 5.1 sound. They have some of those THX demos that they show in movie theaters on there like the Stomp one. And there are some movie examples.

Only DVD I had time to try out so far was Mr&Mrs Smith. As expected, it sounded great in 5.1. Switching between "5 beam mode" and stereo mode is like night and day.


So my initial conclusion is that though t has it's weak points, it does provide a very tangible difference in the sound experience. And if you are limited with space or hate messy wires it's a great solution.

 

[Randell]

How do you find the sub? It's very inexpensive but only gets so so reviews - I never got round to getting it.