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- My rating: 0 stars
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"30-inch wide sonic wonder."
Pros: Convenient. Low power consumption. An all-in-one unit with top-notch audio quality. Clean, crisp, full sound with a wide virtualization field. Highly customizable. Includes all cables, even optical.
Cons: Make sure you have the furniture to accomodate it properly adove or below the TV. Wall-mount is expensive and not included. SR and SL beams will be hard to hear if your couch if against a wall.
Summary: I bought the YSP-800 while looking for alternatives to the somewhat lack-luster HTIB's available on the market today. I also was looking for a system without an integrated DVD player since I already have an Xbox 360 and PS3 which play DVD's more than adequately. I became interested in the YSP-800 as a venture into something completely new. I've had several speaker systems before, each with a mess of wires and a power-hungry amplifier. The YSP-800 caught my attention because of what it claimed to be capable of and its seeming convenience -- the thought of using only 82W for power and next to no wires whatsoever was more than tantalizing to my brain. I researched online and ended up buying it from 6th Ave electronics for around $550, a far cheaper price than the $800 MSRP tag superstores puts on it.
Let me say that once I got the unit out of the box, I was VERY impressed. It felt solid all the way through. It's weight is heavy, but not terribly so. Just right. I was impressed to find that the entire casing is made of metal save for the plastic bezel on the top. The metal grating on the front is also a good move, this ensures a long, protected life for each of the 23 drivers behind it. Since I have a cat, I won't have to worry about damaged drivers with this thing.
I was also impressed with the contents of the package. Remote came with batteries, it came with every cable you need -- [1x Optical cable, 1x coaxial, 1x pair of RCA red/white, 1x yellow composite video cable for on-screen setup, 1x calibration mic] -- and came with a cardboard stand to mount the microphone on to bring it up to listening height for the YSP to calibrate properly. It also came with velcro to ensure that the YSP won't slide out of place on your shelf -- or fall and accidentally kill something.
My particular setup is just a TV stand, nothing fancy or mounted. My TV is the 32" Samsung LNT3253H. I don't wall-mount the TV, so I had to find a solution to place the YSP at a proper listening height without blocking the TV at all. If you had a larger HDTV, you could actually place the YSP in front of the TV and the picture will perfectly clear the top of it -- but my 32" is a bit too short so I had to find another way. My solution was a 6" tall, 25" wide, 8" deep piece of wood which I painted black. I placed the block behind the YSP and placed my TV on top of the block. Not only does the setup look awesome with the screen rising from the top of the unit, but it ensures I get proper feedback from the drivers.
The auto-setup was painless and simple enough. In about one minute the YSP determines your rooms parameters, unique room EQ settings, and sound-beam angles. You just have to be outside of the room as it does this.
Once I had set it all up, a remarkably easy thing to do, I started up my PS3 [since it outputs DTS surround] connected through the supplied optical cable. My test movie: The Incredibles. [I'm a fan of the movie, what can I say?] As everyone's ears in this world are different, I can't guarantee everyone will love its sound quality. I can tell you that I love it, and it's one of the best sounding speakers systems I've owned period. If you live in an apartment, you actually don't need a subwoofer as some people say. You can greatly enjoy this unit just as it is. I was extremely impressed with its bass output. I was expecting bass output similar to something like 2.0 computer speakers, but I was greatly underestimating the power of this unit. Under its own two main woofers, the movie managed to actually shake my seat through the floor. If you definitely want more out of the unit, adding a subwoofer does help by keeping the low-frequency signals away from the YSP so it can focus more on the midrange and highs. [You'll get a more full theater-like range of frequencies with a subwoofer.] I don't own the official Yamaha subwoofer they recommend to use with the YSP, I have a powered THX Altec Lansing subwoofer which connected up just fine, and works beautifully with it. So if you have an extra subwoofer somewhere, you can probably get away with using it with the proper cable.
Now for the spatial effects. Yes, the surround really works. It works if you're seated more in the middle of the room to allow the surround beams to deflect off the back wall. My couch is placed along the back wall, which means that the surround beams don't have the room to bounce off and be heard. The YSP compensated for this by placing the surround beams in the rooms corners, greatly widening the surround effect. While it doesn't guarantee I'll believe I'm hearing something from behind, I definitely never seem to actually care or notice that the rear speakers are really missing. The front speakers have such a wide virtualization field that I become entranced and enveloped within them. TV shows, games, and movies sound best comparable to a panoramic image -- wide and deep. Things that happen to the right really sound like they happen to the far right -- even though all of this sound is coming from a bar in front of me only 30" wide. It's quite impressive and many of my friends who have watched movies at my place agree that size of the sound produced by the YSP is not to be underestimated.
My rooms particular setup, with the couch along the back wall, suggests that I should be using ST+3BEAM mode. This mode sounds best for when I listen to music, but I prefer 5BEAM mode for movies and games.
[Also, at using only 82W of power, you get major bang for the sheer low power this system uses. The YSP uses very high efficiency drivers which allow every little bit of performance to be sucked from its low power supply. Remember: high wattage means nothing in a sound system. A 1000W system with power-guzzling drivers can sound just as good or bad as a 100W system with better drivers that not how to use that 100W.]
Overall, give this thing a try. If you are truly unsure about whether this is for you or not, you can always buy it from a local store and return it if you don't like it -- or if you intend to return it to buy it cheaper online after ample trial period.
If your room can accommodate these YSP's, don't be afraid to jump in and give it a try. New technologies are fun -- you only live once to give them a try.
Where to buy
Yamaha YSP-800 Digital Sound Projector (silver):
$499.95
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