Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector Review
For years, Yamaha’s Digital Sound Projector has been an industry favorite, and is no secret why. This professional speaker belts out 5.1 surround sound without any help. With all the surround amplification and decoding built right into it, this sound projector makes a perfect accompaniment to 42” plasma TVs. The fact that it slides right underneath these TVs makes the overall look much more clean and sleek. The brand is considering coming out with a smaller one that fits the length of of 32” plasma screens too.
These sound projectors can be mounted on the wall for those who don’t want to take up any floor space, and you don’t need to be too tech-savvy to set it up – all you need is a plug, digital cable.
Yamaha’s Digital Sound Projector is of the highest level of quality. The Easy Menu allows users to set the room size, speaker location, and viewer seating position for the perfect audio.
How the Digital Sound Projector Works
The YSP-1 features forty sound beam speaker drivers. Within its casing is a range of 40x 4cm speakers, each digitally amplified. The two 11cm bass drivers to boost the stereo, which should be done accurately when the proper measurements are taken into consideration when installing. Users have the option to choose stereo-only or 3-beam mode without rear surround. Users can fiddle with room measurements, beam angles, seating positions and tones for each channel via the menu.
This digital sound projector is able to adapt quite nicely to various environments, although the optimal rooms are those of medium size that have plenty of curtains or drapes that affect sonic bouncing.
How the Digital Sound Projector Sounds
The YSP-1 sounds somewhat like a mix of direct and reflected sound. For instance, the center channel stays clear, and handles it dialogue quite well.
Some of this digital sound projector’s sound effects come across a bit brittle, since it can’t develop a deep bass sound. Because of this, users require a responsive subwoofer, which can be worked harder by setting its crossover to the maximum (though this is generally not considered to be the best practice).
When used at full throttle in films such as Mission Impossible, or The Hunger Games, this device is quite impressive. It’s a definitely a step up from typical stereo TV speakers or compact surround packages. It’s user-friendly, and its performance is a pleasure.
The Bottom Line
Yamaha’s YSP-1 is arguably the most convenient surround sound system available, given its ease of use. And for the price at around $500, it really is a bargain.
