Yamaha NS-P610

Yamaha speakers have always looked cool, and this attractive, six-piece home-theater speaker package, the NS-P610, more than lives up to the brand's reputation. Our review sample's glossy, piano-black finish puts most standard-issue vinyl-clad boxes to shame. It's too bad that the sound quality didn't match the system's visual appeal.Yamaha speakers have always looked cool, and this attractive, six-piece home-theater speaker package, the NS-P610, more than lives up to the brand's reputation. Our review sample's glossy, piano-black finish puts most standard-issue vinyl-clad boxes to shame. It's too bad that the sound quality didn't match the system's visual appeal.

They got the look
The $600 (list) NS-P610 ensemble includes four satellites, a center-channel speaker, and a powered subwoofer. The level of finish is extraordinarily high for such a modestly priced system. In addition to the drop-dead-gorgeous, piano-black finish, the P610 is also available in cherry.

The 7-inch-tall sats feature 3-inch woofers and 1-inch dome tweeters, while the center-channel speaker matches the sats but doubles up on the 3-inch woofers. The satellites and the center speaker feature rear ports, so they perform best with a little breathing room rather than squashed against a wall. The entire system, including the sub, is magnetically shielded, so it can be placed next to a TV with no picture distortion.

As far as the sub goes, it features a forward-firing, 8-inch woofer with a built-in, 70-watt Advanced YST amplifier. This is one of the smaller subs we've seen, measuring just 9.3 by 14.3 by 12.5 inches. For some strange reason, most subs hide their buttons on the back panel, but the Yamaha's level volume and cross-over control are right up front, so it's easy to reach over and tweak the sub/sat balance for DVDs and CDs. Since the sub incorporates a front-mounted port, it can be tucked into an entertainment center. We found the subwoofer to be one flexible critter, happy in either a vertical or a horizontal orientation.

On the connectivity front, choices include stereo line-level inputs and speaker-level inputs and outputs. However, we noted that one standard subwoofer feature, the 0-/180-degree phase switch, was omitted. That's not a big deal, but ensuring that the sub and sats are moving in phase may be a time-consuming setup task if you need to position the sub in a corner, more than a few feet from the sats. Hide Review