Features
- Offers multichannel surround performance from a single speaker
- Features 42 independent drivers project sound to all corners of the room for total surround sound
- Offers night listening mode, room equalization, many other settings
- Self-powered with 42 discrete digital amplifiers and 120 watts total output (at 10 percent THD)
Price: $1,499.99
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Amazon.com Hands-On Review
Amazon.com Hands-On Review When you want quality sound but can't tolerate hookup hassles or bulky speaker systems, one product demands to be heard: Yamaha's YSP-1 digital sound projector. The YSP-1, which earned the coveted "Best of CES, Best of Show" award at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show, is an extremely sophisticated powered loudspeaker that renders the most successful single-source surround effects we've ever heard. The big-screen-friendly YSP-1 may be just one box, but its silver-grilled casing houses no fewer than 42 individual speaker drivers, each powered by its own digital amplifier for a clear 120 watts total output.
The Yamaha YSP-1 employs multiple small speakers, each with its own digital amplifier. This speaker doesn't merely simulate surround sound. Using complex digital signal processing and intricate driver positioning, it actually reproduces and projects discrete 5-channel sound to different parts of your room, relying on a network of sound reflections from your walls and carefully calibrated delays to deliver coherent multichannel surround sound in a multitude of popular formats.
Sound reflecting off the walls is strikingly suggestive of having actual speakers placed behind and at the sides of your listening position. Because the YSP-1 packs a digital signal processor as well as speaker cones and discrete amplifiers, it relieves you of the need for an audio/video surround receiver while freeing you from four of the five primary speakers in a traditional 5.1-channel speaker system. (A subwoofer, the ".1" in a 5.1 system, is optional.) Cabling is minimal and unobtrusive, so you won't have to drape speaker wires around your living room.
All five channels: L, R, C, Ls, and Rs are given separate orientations. Sound is beamed off the walls to create the effect of a surround system with rear speakers. Configuration is as simple or complicated as you want to make it. You can choose one of three basic preset configurations aimed at small, medium, and large rooms--a great starting point for anyone--and you can, if you wish, fine-tune just about every conceivable parameter, from signal levels for each of the five main channels (front left/center/right and surround left/right) to virtual speaker distance and equalization for each channel to the output level and crossover frequency (for high-frequency rolloff) on the output to your subwoofer.
The device even offers three memory settings to accommodate the listening preferences of different household members or different settings for different sources (movies vs. music, for instance). Its slim depth--under five inches--makes it perfect for use with flat-screen LCD and plasma televisions.
Please keep in mind that to produce successful surround effects, the YSP-1 requires reasonably symmetrical positioning between bare reflective walls, either parallel to two walls or positioned at a 40- to 50-degree angle, as in a corner. Even in rooms laden with books, rugs, and furniture, however--elements that can interfere with the sound reflection needed for proper spatial cues--the YSP-1 still produces a pleasingly full and spacious sound that we found superior
