Has anyone heard the Yamaha YSP-1 system?

One magic box does all - surround sound or stereo. Apparently it's all done with digital amps and time delays.

Has anyone heard it?

 

They've got one in Audio T at High Wycombe Steve. Are you back yet then?

 

I've heard it but in a dealers showroom, so was a bit limited. Dealer said it worked well in rectalinear rooms and that they were selling quite a lot of them. But other than that I know nothing...

Mr Perceptive

 

We're flying back tonight.

Fancy a trip to Audio T (I could provide a range of disguises if necessary)?

 

It is, in a word, crap.

I had one at home for a while a few weeks back and it's not particularly convincing. It's a fairly mediocre centre channel speaker, and absolutely bloody hopeless for stereo - a pair of 100 quid mini-monitors (with a cheap Denon AV receiver) would show it a clean pair of heels on stereo. It needs a sub.

Does it do surround sound? Sort of. Occasionally it will throw a wide image, but it's completely inconsistent.

It is possible that successful deployment is highly dependent on room position as the surround "phantom" image requires room reflections. AFAICT it is best placed in a corner to bounce sound off the sidewalls. My assessment of the unit as "crap" is based on it firing across a room.

It's probably best relegated to a bedroom etc. to match a plasma TV. In fact it's best feature is that it's an AV receiver (dolby decoder)/preamp/ power amp and speakers all rolled up into one wall mountable package.

What you are really looking for is this:

http://www.iosono-sound.com/index.html

 

heard it at the last bristol show and it sounded ok - i was sat at the back left of the room so not ideally positioned but it still threw a reasonable sound field. yes it needs a sub but then it's meant for ht aplications.
i suspect it will work best in small to medium sized rooms where the tv is the focal point and it's firing along the longest axis in the room - that would bethe ideal setup anyway i guess.
not heard it at home but then my room is totally unsuitable and i have a ht solution i'm happy with that cost 1/4 of what the yamaha does. although if i had a bwfh telling me to loose the wires i'd think about one (before trading her in for a new model)
cheers


julian.

 

Thanks for those comments. I must admit that if it's not as good as the hype and the reviews that I've seen online, I won't be too sorry.

Thankfully, there's still much to be said for good old-fashioned speakers.

 

Heard this unit at the Bristol Show this year too.

Having not heard or read about anything similar at this price range before I have to admit to being reasonably impressed (for what you get for the money) and if you wanted a one box solution of course. I know Pioneer demonstrated somthing a few years back but that cost considerably more.

I must have been sat in a good position as the surround effects worked pretty well for me, it did actually sound like there were more speakers in the rear and this is from someone who isn't easily fooled i.e. Q-Sound doesn't usually work for me at all, the rear steared sounds usually just sound like they're "out of phase" to me rather than coming from truly behind. Comparing notes with someone who was sat right next to me, they said they weren't convinced by the surround capabilities, so I guess seating position is still very critical.

Yamaha were also using 2 subs in this particular demo, so it would indeed be interesting to hear what you get when no subs are used.