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IntroductionYears from now home theater enthusiasts may

be reading whole articles on the available modelswithin the Digital Sound Projector category. Forthe present though, there exists only thecategory-defining Yamaha YSP-1, a brilliantmarriage of compact form with simply amazingmulti-channel synthesis capability.

First ImpressionsWhen we first heard Yamaha's demonstration

of the YSP-1 at the 2005 CES we were fairlyimpressed. I remember noting at the time that thedemo space had no roof. So the ambient noiselevel that is CES was at its usual 75DB or so. Infact, that was one of the most striking aspects ofthis demo. Instead of trying to construct anacoustically-correct sound room for their demo

soundstage. Sure the content was the usualthunder storm or chirping birds in a forest, but thesounds were definitely not coming from a tinnylittle HTIB speaker mounted to the wall. Rather,the sound was spread out, maybe four feet wideover my left and right shoulders. And it seemed toexist, not glued to a speaker source on the wall,but floating out in the open space behind me. Itwas audibly located perhaps a foot forward of theplywood-wall, open-ceiling juncture.

Two other interesting and new-to-me surroundphenomena seemed to be taking place. First,because of the open ceiling, CES' ambient crowd-noise now became the ceiling! The YSP-1'ssurround sound did not blend with the crowd-noise. Instead, the surround image stayed fixedwithin the confines of the four-wall plywood room.

Yamaha's crew seemed to have wanted to do theexact opposite. Construct a topless room withsimple, hard walls made of 1/2" ply. There werelarge openings at the two back corners throughwhich dealers could walk in and hear the demo.Hmmm... what was up?

And the demo... I had heard demos like this inyears past with any number of electronic-onlymethods of phase alteration and what-not thatcould throw simple sounds like birds chirping upand behind you - provided you sat in an exactsweet spot. So given the high ambient SPL fromthe CES crowd-noise and what seemed like a"parlor trick"-style demo on first listen, I waskinda-sorta impressed but not overly so.

Then, listening a bit longer while still facingforward I began to notice the spread of the rear

Yamaha YSP-1 Digital SoundProjector: A Milestone in Home Theater HistoryThe promise of a high performance, simple hook-up, one-box, surround-sound system fulfilledby Patrick Hart of Audioholics.com

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SpecificationsYamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector

YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector

Review Date 3.5.05

Review SummaryOverall Rating: 4.75/5

Value Rating: 5/5MSRP: $1499

ManufacturerYamaha Electronics

Pros• Single-box, high performance, 42 digital

amplifier, surround sound system

• Very easy, 30-minute hook-up; interconnects only.

• Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS ES for movies,Dolby Pro Logic II & DTS Neo 6 for music

• Decor-friendly, highest partner-acceptance factor system

• Highly ergonomic, easy-to-use and integrate remote control

• Plays impressively loud and clean

• Quality construction, exemplary fit and finish

• Excellent value vs performance

Cons• Requires subwoofer for

• full-bandwidth movie sound

• Some non-re-EQ'ed DVDs can sound bright at high SPL

• Software set-up requires a learning curve

steering" audio processor chip. All ofthe transducers are used for ALL of the 5different steered channels – they areNOT used as subsets; i.e. some for eachbeam only.

4. It is a button-push configurable two-channel, three channel, five-channeland three LCR channel + 2 channelsurround-capable speaker system.Forty-two transducers total; two 4.5" leftand right front mid-woofers on either sideof the master array of 40 approximately1.25" diameter drivers. The crossoverfrequency of the two 4.50" left-right mid-woofer drivers is switchable to 80Hz,100Hz or 120Hz to match with anoutboard subwoofer for which a low-leveloutput is provided. The mid-woofers'handoff frequency to the 1.25" forty-driver array takes place at 350Hz (1000Hz in Corner-location mode).

5. It is the most decor-friendly, highestwife-acceptance-factor, true surroundaudio system ever designed. With thedebut of the Yamaha YSP-1, its productexecution, from the quality of materials,to the stunningly elegant industrial design,marks a high-point for performance vs.value in a category-defining product.

Amp Section Maximum Output Power (EIAJ)2 watts (1KHz, 10% THD, 10Ω) x 4020 watts (100Hz, 10% THD, 4Ω) x 2

Speaker Section 1.5" (4cm) cone magnetic shielding type x 404.5" (11 cm) cone magnetic shielding type x 2

Input Jacks Two pairs Analog Audio (1V, 32 kΩ)Optical S/PDIF AudioCoaxial S/PDIF Audio

Output Jacks Subwoofer Pre-out (1V, less than 120Hz)Video Out OSD (1Vp-p, 75Ω)

System Connector Jacks 1 System Control, RS-232C

Finishes Available Silver enamel perforated metal grille,High-gloss black Plexiglas base

General Power Consumption: 50 watts

Standby Power Consumption: 0.5 watts or less

Dimensions: 40.56" x 7.69" x 4.62" (103cm x 19.4cm x 11.8cm)

Product Weight: 13 kg (28 lbs 10 oz)

The YSP-1 is based around digitalSound Projector technology developedover the past 7 years in Cambridge,England, by 1 Ltd, a small hi-tech R & DIP-licensing company founded by Dr. TonyHooley in 1995. Until now this technologywas only previously licensed to Pioneer ofJapan. For more information, please readmy exclusive interview with Dr. Hooley.

Secondly, the quality of the bird tweets andthunderstorm seemed to sound much more likethe real thing. Since the whole Audioholics crewwas hearing this demo at the same time, Itempered my enthusiasm for the moment whilewe politely requested a sample for review.

What It Is, What It Is NotThe Yamaha YSP-1 is, quite simply, a single-

box, high performance home theater solutionwhich, by its very nature, integrates more easilyinto a typical home environment than anyproduct that has come before.

To define it component-wise using standardaudio categories, the YSP-1's internal sub-systems would break down roughly as follows:

1. It is an Audio Preamp/Processorwhich integrates with analog ordigital video sources. The YSP-1hooks up to both digital and analog audiosources. Dolby Digital and DTS are built-in for movies while Dolby Pro Logic II andDTS Neo 6 can transform two-channelmusic into five channel surround. Thenumber of inputs has been kept to a bareminimum but, as will be seen, they willsupport the most common configurationsfor which this unit will likely be used. Thisincludes the capability to hook up to aDVD player, a cable or satellite receiverbox (analog audio, digital video), ananalog or digital TV and even analogaudio from a VCR. Then there is the ever-present aux digital input which can beused for a digital cable TV, digital satelliteTV or game console.

2. It has forty-two channels of digitalamplification. The YSP-1 has forty 2.5watt digital amplifiers, each tied directly toits own 1.25" transducer within the array.There are also two 20-watt digitalamplifiers which deliver power to two 4.5"mid-woofers.

3. The YSP-1 has a proprietary (1 Ltd)digital signal allocation and "beam

Projecting surround channelsacoustically

The design premise of Yamaha's DigitalSound Projector is contained in an in-house,training-oriented "white paper" of sorts entitled"The Goals of a High-Quality Sound FieldCreation (System)." This title hints at theinherent 180º difference between the YSP-1Digital Soundfield Projector we're reviewinghere vs.1986's Yamaha DSP-1 DigitalSoundfield Processor which, to this author'sway of thinking, was a digital sound field re-creation device.

The Yamaha DSP-1, Stereo Review'sProduct of the Year for 1986, had algorithmsbuilt-in which were said to recreate the sound offamous concert halls, jazz clubs and stadiumsfrom around the world. That product, launchedwhen the only home theater format in existencewas three-channel Dolby Surround, required aminimum of four amplifier channels and fourloudspeakers plus a subwoofer to make the fullsystem really blast off. And at the time, TopGun, played thousands of times in dealershowrooms nationwide, introduced well-healedaudiophile/movie aficionados to the joys of amovement which became known as HomeTheater.

As spectacular as Top Gun was back then itrequired at least a couple thousand dollars inauxiliary equipment (extra boxes) to reach thesystem's full surround potential. Let's nowcome back to the present and take a look at thelofty product goals set for Yamaha's single-boxsound field creation machine (as paraphrasedfrom the Japanese-to-English translation):

Natural, Speaker-less Surround"What makes a playback sound field artificial is the presence of speakers."

Agreed. From the beginning of home theater,the goal of the surround speakers has alwaysbeen to generate a sense of immersion orenvelopment of making the surround speakersseemingly disappear. But before THX'sdoctrine of sound "immersion" was widelymarketed, and with little understanding ofsurround's psychoacoustic implications, one-brand stereo systems began to be sold withtwo, small-box, single-driver surroundspeakers.

Power to these rear channels was usuallyfrom a low power "chip-amp" which at mostwould put out 20 watts at 10% THD. Driving

low sensitivity, inexpensive "full-range" surroundspeakers, the end result would typically be ahuge sound quality unbalance between clean,truly full-range front channels and an annoying,tinny "surround sound" signal emanating frombehind the listener.

The sound of the Yamaha 's YSP-1 is lightyears ahead of that first generation of product.First off, all of the channels have a morenatural, out-of-the-speaker-box sound. This isparticularly apparent on center-channel dialog inwhich voices on a good recording are imbuedwith their natural timbre.

This clarity of vocal articulation is fairlystartling to hear for the first time. When you'reused to hearing the slight side-to-sidecancellation effect of a horizontal D'Appolitocenter speaker, the YSP-1's natural sound is avery welcome change.

Seamless, Virtual Speakers"The key is the size of an audio image. In the

past it was said that a point source was the idealfor a sound source. That was correct for stereobut what about surround sound? The YSP-1 hasbeen designed with the intent of paying moreattention to the connectivity or extensity of asound field than to the presence or localizationof the sound image" (Extensity: In psychology,the quality of sensation which permits theperception of space or size.)

Extensity is an accurate description of thespatial envelope this Digital Sound Projectorcan portray. One gets the very new andsomewhat eerie sense of the space within theroom being defined by a movie's surroundcontent. To illustrate; without the oft-timesintrusive consciousness of in-wall speakersinstalled in the corner behind me and to mysides I can now sense the "sound bubble" of aparticular movie from the prospective of thebigness or smallness of the effect itself. In otherwords, I think I'm hearing what the director andsound editor may have intended when he mixedin-studio from his fixed-position surroundspeakers.

It is this effect, this ability of the sound fieldto expand and contract depending on programcontent that is most difficult for my auditorymemory to wrap around and get a firm grasp of.Many of us, after all, have been listening tosurround from known, fixed speaker locationsfor almost a generation.

Putting aside the tremendous strides in directsurround vs. matrix, plus the ever increasing

level of sound quality, one constant withsurround speakers has always been that weknow where our surround speakers are. Weknow how we expect them to "sound", nomatter how wonderfully immersive and diffuse.And we expect that sound to come from thegeneral direction of the rear and side wallperimeters.

It is this single aspect, this “floating-in-space”effect which helps to define the new sound ofYamaha's Digital Sound Projector. Before wewere 2D surround, trying to make the case forthat last dimension with wall mounted speakers.With the YSP-1, the surround sensation alwaysexists in a 3D space and the "willing suspensionof disbelief", as THX calls it, becomes easier toachieve.

Sound Creation with Extensity Now that we have surround images floating

in space, another apparent benefit becomesmore obvious - that of the three-dimensionalsize of the floating image. It is here that mymind tells me this surround sound field is beingportrayed unlike any I've heard from a pointsource, mono-polar surround speaker.Depending on the frequency content of theimage, say, above 1 kHz, the projected imagecan have a greater sense of width and depththan is usually possible with wall-mountedsurrounds. Conversely with the YSP-1, lowerpitched sounds or effects, above thesubwoofer's omni-directional frequencies cansound truncated or recessed.

In making that last statement though I wouldsay it takes a trained ear, along with a goodaudio memory of what a particular moment in afilm sounded like over a conventional surroundsystem, to realize what may be missing in thesound reconstruction as projected by the YSP-1. And again, the honest-to-goodness 3Ddimensionality of the surround soundstagegreatly overwhelms the ear/brain's ability todetermine the frequency envelope of an effectto your side or from behind.

Design and ConstructionYamaha designers are acutely aware of the

import a category-defining product such as theYSP-1 can have. Not only with first adoptersbut also with the second and third generationdesign variants which are sure to follow. GKDesign has been closely aligned with theYamaha family for decades. For all this time GKand Yamaha have shared the same basic

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reviewdesign philosophy of elegant, simple-of-line,design execution. This philosophy has heldespecially true whenever rare milestoneproducts such as the YSP-1 are firstintroduced.

In the US, a little known aspect of Yamaha'smanufacturing prowess is their line of highstyle, exquisitely made, wood furniture (since1903) available only in the Japanese market.So there is quite a long history of designthought given to melding what is hoped will bean elegant statement-piece of electronics into ahome environment.

I had been told that first samples of the YSP-1 were already shipping. And since my reviewsample came in an unmarked box my guess isthat these shipments would follow Yamaha'slong-held practice of sending the first lots tocompany rep organizations as well as press tosee if there were any last minute issues whichmight have slipped past the engineering team.

This lot of product is usually dubbed pre-production. A couple hundred pieces aretypically "test run" on the actual production lineto check last possible assembly glitches thatcould compromise the product's build integrity.Also of note at this final stage of developmentis that all actual tooled production parts areused. So the following comments on theproduct's fit, finish and overall design should bevirtually identical to final production.

At a suggested retail of $1499 SRP theYSP-1's well chosen and expensiveconstruction materials plus exemplary fit andfinish set a benchmark for every subsequentproduct to emulate. My significant otherimmediately approved the classy, muted silver-gray perforated metal grille across the upperspan of the unit's face. She loved the fact thatin most room lighting, the 42 black driversmounted on a flat-black background behind thegrille make them invisible. The bottom frontarea sports a clear Plexiglas-over-high-gloss-black background running lengthwise acrossthe entire device. The subtle dull-to-shiny blendof the grille versus the base was also highlyregarded in my household.

Behind the plexiglas in the unit's bottom-center is a 4" x 1/2" flouroscan dot-matrixdisplay in a muted blue. This is my favoritechoice of display technology and color as it isequally readable both in darkness and in mosttypical lighted room conditions. (The light levelof this display is adjustable from 0 to -1 or -2 inthe software. I found -2 worked equally well indarkness or daylight conditions.)

The YSP-1 RemoteI'm big, really big on easy-to-use remotes.

I’m just guessing here but I'd say Yamaha'sYSP-1 engineering team must have takenseveral samples home for their wives and kidsduring development. The basic operations aresimplicity in the extreme, and intelligentlygrouped along the remote's bottom 40% of realestate. The remote works within a prettygenerous ±30º window and at that 30º angleit's good for full functionality to about 20 feet.

There are some really clever ergonomictouches that are not apparent until you studythe remote's layout a bit more closely. Forexample, the TV channel up-down buttons havebeen moved up and out of the most-usedbottom sector. (Keep it on channel 3!)

Another brainy move was placing all the set-up routine buttons in a sort of "no-man's-land"center section around the ubiquitous Up-Down-Left-Right directional wheel with center Selectbutton. This leaves a neatly divided and simple-to-use remote with most-used, single-pushcontrols at the bottom.

At the top are secondary controls which thekids or grandparents would use less often oncethe movie or TV program is started. This is aremote I can remember easily and, for instance,coach my fiancée's grandfather over the phoneshould he get in trouble. Just set it up once,warn kids and novices to stay away frombuttons with green nomenclature in the centerarea, and you're home free. It doesn't get anybetter than that!

Along the remote's bottom are the fouravailable beam modes. This section has a violetbackground which immediately identifies thisremote as belonging to the Digital SoundProjector. (As we shall see later in the review allfour beam modes are available when the YSP-1 and your video display are placed flat againsta wall surface. For a corner arrangement, onlytwo of the four modes, Stereo and 3 Beammode are available.)

Above the beam mode selection buttons area soft-white TV input selector and four darkgray source selection buttons for TV, DVD,VCR and aux. The owner's manual suggestsaux can be either a digital satellite tuner, digitalcable or a game console. There is even a sleepmode button which alternates by single pressesbetween 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes,120 minutes and off.

The next section up from beam modeselection will be the most utilized. And it is here

To the right along the bottom are four square,flat black tact-switch-style push buttons labeledInput, Volume - / + and Standby/On. To theLeft along the bottom is a barely discernableYamaha logo with "Digital Sound ProjectorYSP-1." A 0.2" wide x 6.25" high gloss blackplastic end-cap finishes off both left and rightsides of the perforated grille.

Moving around to the back, the unit'smaterials and quality of finish are every bit asimpressive. Presumably to contain EMI radiationthat may be emitted from the digital amplifierchips, a double-layer steel chassis has beenfabricated with overlapping seams. The outerblack-oxide coated chassis sits atop an eight-tenths width plastic injection-molded base. Onthe YSP-1's top, two black-anodized aluminumextrusions form the upper cover. A plastic capwhich has the Yamaha logo reverse-embossedis affixed at the top center to cover the seam ofthe two aluminum extrusions.

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that the simple two-color button theme plusclever spacing ergonomics play such a subtle,yet vital roll. To the left in soft-white are the +and - TV Volume rocker-style buttons for the TVspeakers. On the remote's right side the two +and - charcoal gray buttons simply calledVolume. A soft-white TV Mute is in the centerbetween these two rocker-style volume controlsand matching charcoal gray Mute to quiet theYSP-1 is above that.

To me, the remote and its design are one ofthe surest signs signaling the care with whichan electronic piece of gear has been designed.If system's remote functions well; if it is bothintuitive in layout and labeling, and smooth andquick in operation, the end result is increasedsatisfaction with the system as a whole.

If you hold it down, the volume control on theYSP-1 goes from -99.5dB to 0dB in less than10 seconds. That's 199 points of volumeadjustability! To my mind the speed,smoothness and accuracy of this volumecontrol are perfect. The mute threshold for theYSP-1 is adjustable in the menu, so you canhave the volume cut off completely, or mute it toa level more appropriate to your preference.Using the YSP-1's remote to control my eight-year-old Mitsubishi TV's volume, the action ofthis new remote was much smoother than withthe remote that came with the TV. Now that'scool...

Situated just below the Standby/On and AVPower buttons at the top is the numericalkeypad. The numerical buttons will probably beused most times for setting up the initial remotecodes for non-Yamaha devices. In my case,looking up the code for my Mitsubishi TV in the

back of the YSP-1's owner's manual andpunching in the code took all of 30 secondstotal. Bingo, instant and seamlessinteroperability from the Yamaha remote.

The best part of this simplicity of operation isthat the Yamaha remote button named TV Inputnow handled, for the first time in my experiencewith a second party remote, the TV's inputselect function.

The top section of the remote also has astandard set of grey transport control buttons:Play, Pause, Stop, Fast Forward and Reverseand Chapter Advance/Reverse. These largerrectangular buttons functioned perfectly withthe Yamaha DVD S1500 which I also had underreview at the time. Toward the end of the reviewI did drag out one of my VCR's to check thecode learning acuity on a device that might befairly common in installations containing theYamaha YSP-1. My Toshiba VCR had noproblem functioning from the Yamaha remoteso I'd give the code research team kudos here.

A single nit-pick: the remote control featuremost of us Audioholics immediately look for...backlighting, is not included. Normally, in aproduct of this ambitious caliber I'd expressdisappointment. I'm guessing though that inmost instances there'll be adequate lighting inthe room anyway. So while I'll give theengineers a pass on this first version, at thesame time I'd humbly request a fully backlitremote, (with the same great control layoutplease!) in your second generation DigitalSound Projector.

Setting Up Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector

One of the most outstanding aspects of theYSP1's all-in-one design IS its all-in-onedesign. As long as you mount the Digital SoundProjector either above or below your videodisplay all other room and imaginary speakerplacement locations can be input into the unit'sDSP.

Even after having an absolute ball with thissystem for the last two weeks I still laugh indumbfounded amazement every time I try a newset-up. After working so many years carefullyfiguring out front and surround speakerplacement in dozens of rooms, it's hard todescribe the feeling of being able to simply plopa single box on top of my TV, hook-up five or sixinterconnects and having immersive hometheater like I've never experienced - all in lessthan 30 minutes.

For basic hook-up to the TV, DVD, etc, thedirections are well-written with clear, simpleillustrations. Once all the hard-wiring iscomplete the on-screen set-up menu systemwill need to be utilized. Yamaha has anticipatedthat most people will not want to read too farinto the set-up before they actually hear soundso the first Set Menu screen has only threechoices: Memory, Easy Set-up and Manual Set-up.

A word of advice? Choose Easy Set-up andgo through the two-minute, four-step programto get sound coming out of your magic box. It'ssimple. Select >

• Room Type: Square or rectangle? Gotan L-shaped room? Choose rectangle.

• Speaker Position: Square has 4 choicesincluding offset and corner. Rectangle has8.

• Room Size: 3 general dimensions given.Pick the closest dimensions to your room.

• Set-up Okay? Say yes and input yourfirst program into one of the three presetmemories.

Sound comes out of the magic box.Surround sound floating in space. Center vocalsound that is up front, natural and clear. Theinitial audio impact of the YSP-1 will likely be fardifferent than you've ever experienced. Enjoy thesound while you read a bit about Manual Set-up...

Phil Shea, has been Yamaha's point man fortraining on new products for longer than he'llcare to admit. After seeing the reviewer/factoryrep version of the YSP-1's owner's manual withits very succinct set-up instructions I decided togive Phil a call to see what he'd learned aboutthe YSP-1.

It turns out that Phil had received his first unitin November '04 so he had spent quite a bit oftime with the Yamaha magic box. He alerted meto a couple of labeling mistakes in the YSP-1'sManual set-up sequence which I'll cover in acouple of minutes. Phil's main suggestion tobear in mind when setting up, for instance, 3-Beam Mode (which I needed to use for myinitial corner YSP-1/TV position) was to go

through the entire set-up in the order in whichthey are presented in the menu. Deviate fromthat order by jumping to the end of the menu tochange a parameter and you may wind upchanging a parameter further upstream. Do thatand you'll probably have to start over.

A screen I'd like to see added is a User-memory Table of Contents which shows all thesettings that exist for that preset. As it is, unlessa table is hand-written for each of theparameters to be input you'll have no way ofremembering what you have engaged thatworks. If, on the other hand, you take somehard measurements of your room ahead oftime, and you make a little top-view sketch ofyour room beforehand, you'll have a mucheasier time getting your first manual set-up inthe ballpark sound-wise.

Once you've got that first program input intoone of the three User program memories (I'dsuggest memory 3) then you can go backthrough the exercise again and tweak yoursettings from there.

Here's are left-center-right shots of my openand very irregularly laid-out living room from theviewpoint of the YSP-1, looking out over it'stop.

To the right, my living room is 25.5 feet long.To the left, toward the front door, it measures21 feet. The loveseat, whose top cushions arejust visible looking over the YSP-1, is 8 feet outand 15º down. In this corner placement thereare only two beam modes available, Stereo and3 Beam Mode. Be sure to press the 3 BeamMode button first. Then, starting with the "a)Subwoofer Set" screen here's how to set upthe YSP-1...

In this author's opinion, the YSP-1 musthave a subwoofer added to consider it a truehome theater system. For my tests I used twohigh power subwoofers from my standard hometheater rig. For "Bass Out" the choices areSWFR, FRONT or BOTH. I chose SWFR andtried the 3 available frequencies, 80Hz, 100Hzand 120Hz. The 100Hz frequency seemed togive the subwoofer-to-YSP-1 the most open,unstrained sound.

Next, when the "b) Speaker Level" screen isselected, the YSP-1's pink noise is heard. Andit is here that the first bit of screen confusioncomes in. When the arrow is on "FR" the pinknoise alternates between right and left. Thesechannel levels are tied to each other. So whenyou think you are setting FR you're actuallysetting FR and FL. There is one bar for both.

When you set the arrow to Center you getpick noise which alternates between FL and C.On the YSP-1 this screen is done correctly andsyncs up with the sound heard. I used my RadioShack SPL meter (C-weighting, slow) to setthe levels when listening at 75dB SPL.

On the next screen of this sequence, with thearrow pointing to SL you'll see *OUT: FL > SL.What actually happens is that the pink noisealternates between C and SL, center andsurround left. Once you get that figured out (byletting your ears tell you what you're hearing)you can set your levels accordingly. I set mylevels with SL about 3dB higher than Cbecause my listening position was much closerto the YSP-1 and I reasoned that SL or SRsignals would have to travel much further in myroom, bounce, and come back to the listeningposition. As it turned out, that decision workedwell.

The final screen of the sequence shownabove on the right adjusts the two rear surroundlevels to each other. This one's easy. Again justuse the Radio Shack SPL meter and set SR tothe same level as SL.

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The subwoofer level was one that I had to goback and tweak a couple of times. This isbecause you basically don't have any othersignal with which to compare and balance yoursub(s). And because the sub's sound, properlydone, is omni-directional you'll need to actuallyhear how your 3 Beam Mode's left, center andright channels articulate and form "sound inspace". Only the center channel is actuallylocalizable to the YSP-1. You'll have to getaccustomed to this 3D effect before you'll havea handle on setting the sub level properly.

Dynamic range. Parents take note! If thissystem is for some very lucky Sponge Bobfanatics you might want to consider setting thedynamic range to MIN or STD instead of theMAX which floated my boat in my main listeningarea. I‘m betting that 99% of readers intend tokeep the Dynamic Range at Max so let'scontinue with the set-up...

The YSP-1's mute level is configurable inseveral ways depending upon your needs. I setmy mute level to -20dB because my TV mutegoes to completely off. This way I keep usingthe YSP-1's sound most of the time. The "e)Tone Control" screen I completely missed thefirst couple of times through the menu becauseit's on another page all by itself. At first I wasgoing to recommend that this overall systemtone control be somehow moved forward toanother screen. That is, until I learned that,through a sequence of button pushes I couldaccess this single screen via the YSP-1's bluedisplay window (no onscreen display required)and thus make overall sound system balancedecisions while a movie was playing. One youget the hang of how to do this on-the-fly sound-tweak you'll use it often for differently balancedmovies.

Reasoning that YSP-1's tiny drivers mightwork better if the sound were bounced off aclose surface rather than one further away Imeasured 14.5' at a 55º-60º angle from theYSP-1 to the 8" wide column you see in theleft-most room photo. (The half-open shade isin front of the column and an antique lamphangs out from it.)

On the left side there was no surface nearerthan the front door (with coat rack seen in theright-most room photo) so I set the left roomdistance (under "Parameters") at 21' (the entirewidth of the room) and the "b) Beam Adj" sub-menu "a) Horiz. Angle" to 65º. That 65º is theangle I estimated from the YSP-1 center zeroposition, looking out, toward the vicinity of thedoor. What you're trying to accomplish here isfigure the angle at which the YSP-1's beamed

sound will go out, hit a hard surface and bounceback to the listening area. As I discovered, theinitial guesstimate is good for getting you in theballpark. And that's all you are really trying toaccomplish at this point. Once you go throughthe menu a second time, with the pink noise on,you'll find that you can hear the pink noisevolume increase at your listening position. Keepyour first settings wherever you first hear thevolume increase. Once you're within ±15º or soyou won't hear too much of a change.

Here’s a trick that worked for me: If, forinstance, you are listening to pink noise fromthe right side, you can plug your left ear andvice versa. With so much wide band noisebouncing off so many surfaces the finger-in-the-ear trick seems to help your brain localizethe proper pink noise direction a bit better.

The "c) Distance" parameter is ameasurement of the distance the sound beamtravels from the YSP-1 to the wall, bounces,and back to the center of the listening position.I found getting these dimensions prettyaccurate seemed to give a better surroundeffect at the listening position.

The "d) Focal Length" setting: Yamaha'smanual recommends a Center = -1.5 feet togive a similar frequency response across the

“That my fiancee couldimmediately enjoy such a scene, for the first timeever, is a tribute to theenhanced, palpablerealism of the YSP-1'simmersive and believable3D soundstage.”

Patrick Hart

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listening positions. This recommendationworked well so I left the Center setting there.Focal Length Right and Focal Length Leftseemed to be a different story. Focal length

appears to attempt to focus the beam's widthmore widely (and less powerfully) with shortdistances and more narrowly (more acousticallypowerful) when distances are increased.

Again reasoning that we're dealing here withreal world limitations as to how much a soundbeam can actually be "focused" and how far itcan therefore be thrown, I found it made littledifference whether I set the Focal Length at thedistance to the room's wall or out to themaximum YSP-1 menu parameter (which is at80 feet). So I set this distance parameter at 45feet and left it there. I suspect, however, thatwhen I move the system to a smallerrectangular room with against-the-wall asopposed to corner placement there may moreaudible benefits to fine tuning this distance.

D) Beam Tone: What a concept! Adding bassand treble to a sound in space! As can be seenin the screen shot below left, each of the fivechannels in the 3 Beam Mode have treble andbass boost or cut capability. When I initiallylistened to the system in Easy Set-up Modethese tones were factory set at flat.

In the initial boulder-chasing-Indiana Jonesscene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" theboulder has its very low frequency rumblecoming from the subwoofers. But there is alsoupper bass and low midrange frequencycontent of the boulder's sound against the twotree-rails it's riding on as it chases Indy frombehind. With the Beam Tones set flat for allchannels the boulder sounds as if it were madeof steel and it is sliding and skidding on steelrails. Once +5dB of boost was added to the

front left and front right channels the boulderonce again sounded like a true rock riding onround tree rails. In short, the effect of addingbass in the Beam Tone menu does work.

Lastly we come to the "e) Image Location"screen and the three User memories. The YSP-1's Owner's Manual has this to say aboutImage Location. "Use this feature to redirectaudio signals if the sound coming from the leftand right speakers seems unnatural, such aswhen your listening position is not the center ofyour listening room". Fair enough. My listeningposition is in the center of the listening room sothe Left and Right outer speaker positions wereleft at zero %. (Zero in this case is supposedlyfor maximum front left and right sound spread,away from the actual locations of the left andright speaker clusters on the YSP-1. As you goup in % you ostensibly move the left and rightspeakers closer to their true positions, on theactual face of the YSP-1.)

We're at the end of the program. To freeze allthese settings pick one of the three availableuser presets and hit ‘Enter.’ I found that once Ihad the system performing well, I couldnavigate through the menu quickly. It was easyto go in, change one parameter in the wholemenu, and put this new parameter template intoanother User memory. It was then simple to A-B the results while watching favorite moviescenes. And rather than being the cumbersomechore this menu at first seemed, it became funafter the first week or so to continually makeminor changes to see how the sound of afavorite scene would be changed.

Dr. Hooley adds:

Actually, we use the Focal Length to determine, for positive focal lengths, the distance

from the YSP-1 where the beam most tightly converges. There are two considerations:

1) If the required outgoing beam direction takes the beam close to the listeners on the

way out, it’s often helpful to minimize the beamwidth at the listener distance (i.e. set Focal

Length to ~distance of listeners from YSP-1 in the direction of the outgoing beam), as this

minimizes “cross-talk” – i.e. hearing the direct beam rather than the reflected beam.

2) Where crosstalk as in 1) is not such an issue, one can often pull-in (reduce) Focal

Length to perhaps 2m or 1m so that beyond this close-in focal “point” the beam thereafter

spreads out again, so that by the time it has reached the wall and bounced back to the

listeners it is coming from a large area of wall – which of course just adds to the spatial /

diffuse surround quality achievable with DSP, which cannot be attained with single-box

surround speakers.

“For the most part though, the boundaries of theYSP-1's trapezoidalacoustic bubble handilytrumped, in true 3-Dspaciousness and realism, the “ideal” circle-of-surround-sound usuallydefined by actualsurround speakers.”

Patrick Hart

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the overlap helps with effectively implementingthe Beam Tone mode, using the larger pistonarea of the 4.5" drivers in conjunction with thelittle 1.25" drivers when, for instance, +5dB ofbass boost is dialed-in.

To finish up this curve, note that with all tonecontrols set to flat the 1.25" drivers exhibit a5.5dB average bump centered at 6100Hz. Theresponse does extend out fairly well to almost15KHz but with the 6100Hz peak presencethese upper frequencies are more likely to beobscured rather than heard if no attention ispaid to attenuating the treble response via theinternal treble Tone Control.

The final curve is a splice, at 1000Hz, of thecomposite woofer and tweeter curves. In thiscase the internal Tone Control was used to setthe tweeter level to - 3dB. This setting yieldedthe best overall frequency response for theYSP-1.

This type of smiley-curve response is mostcomfortable to hear when listening non-criticallyto music and will usually be perceived as more

From 200Hz and below you're seeing theresponse of the 4.5" woofer, which, at thismeasurement position, is about 12" away andat a 45º angle from the microphone. Note thatthe curve from 200Hz to 1000Hz is quite a bitchoppier than the close mic'ed curve of thewoofer only. This might indicate that the 1.25""steer-able" drivers are brought down andoverlap the woofer's frequency response in thisrange.

Normally such a frequency overlap is a no-nowith hi-fidelity speakers made specifically formusic reproduction. But the guess here is that

Higher Frequencies: formed as more directional beams like a point sound sourceLower Frequencies: formed as more broader beams to get surround feelings

YSP-1’s Poler Pattern (in front of the sound beam)

YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector Measurements

It was fairly easy to measure the YSP-1outside in free air. For the 4.5" mid-woofer I dida close mic'ed measurement while the YSP-1was pointing straight up. This gives a reflection-free curve with no curve-smoothing required.With the software set at 80Hz for the crossoverthe woofer curved out as seen below. Note howsharp the digital filter cuts off the mid-woofer at1000Hz!

Please don't get too excited by the 114.5dB(average) SPL reading. This SPL is with themicrophone almost touching the woofer coneso SPL readings are inaccurate. The wooferitself appears quite linear, ±1.25dB. It is -3dBat 68Hz which is very good performance forsuch a small driver. When moving the internalcrossover up to 100Hz this 4.5" driver will staymore linear at higher power levels than if thecrossover were kept at 80Hz. Listening tests(below) confirm the validity of the 100Hz,crossover-to-subwoofers choice.

The graph below indicates the left channelfrequency response for the system in Stereomode. As can be seen in the uppermicrophone-speaker photo this measurementwas taken with the mic 8" above what wasassumed to be the left channel 1.25" speakercluster.

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than adequate treble extension within thecontext of TV or movie viewing. Also, the bumpat 6100Hz most probably corroborates well withfrequencies beginning lower, at around 3KHz inrendering the "floating-in-space" sound portraitthe YSP-1 is capable of rendering.

The caveat to the 6100Hz peak is that withmovie music not specifically re-EQ'ed for DVD,instruments with lots of high frequencyharmonic energy, like a tambourine, becomeimmediately fatiguing. The same holds true forthe CD and most music-only formats. As it is,the YSP-1's frequency response appears tohave been specifically tailored to achievemaximum beam- throwing efficiency as ishinted by the inclusion of the multiple-frequencypolar pattern chart contained in Yamaha's YSP-1 white paper.

Listening Impressions My open floor plan living room with corner

placement is the space I used for most of mytesting. The corner placement condition is theone which my comments have alluded to up tothis point, so let's talk about the YSP-1'sperformance in this most sonically challengingsituation...

After studying conceptual top-views of thedifferent beam modes I concluded that my moreopen floor plan, with corner placement, wasquite a bit larger than the largest room-choicegiven in the YSP-1's Easy Set-up menu. Itseemed apparent that I'd be asking the YSP-1to strut its stuff in an almost worse-casescenario.

By inputting and re-tweaking differentManual program settings for a couple of days I

felt I had reached a point where I was gettingclose to the maximum performance out ofYamaha's Digital Sound Projector in myparticular environment. So, what better way towring out Yamaha's magic box than by rentingthe newly-released DTS 6.1 Special Editionversion of 1986's Top Gun?

Using the 3 Beam Mode with my dual subs(one front, one rear) I set the YSP-1 level to -14dB as Top Gun's opening sequence with itstension-filled, slowly building musical scorebegan to define, then expand the surroundenvironment within my listening space.

I would describe the sound envelope of theYSP-1, operating from a corner into such alarge space as a puffed-up trapezoid. This talltrapezoid runs front-to-back with the top,shorter base placed slightly behind the YSP-1and bottom, longer base spread out quite a bitmore way behind the listening area. Thisbloated trapezoid listening bubble might, withsources like Top Gun S.E. begin to approach acircle in a smaller listening space. For the mostpart though, the boundaries of the YSP-1'strapezoidal acoustic bubble handily trumped, intrue 3-D spaciousness and realism, the "ideal"circle-of-surround-sound usually defined byactual surround speakers.

Listening to Top Gun's slowly buildingmusical theme wherein new and more complexelements are added to Harold Faltermeyer'sscore every few bars, the adrenaline build-upfrom Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector splayssound out further and wider into the room asthe SPL levels build naturally along with thescore. When, at the music's crescendo, the F-14 jet hits full afterburner's on the carrier deckyou feel the jet's explosive thrust slam you as

the music transitions to the expansive, gut-thumping rhythm of "Danger Zone".

This scene was equally as exhilarating for mysignificant other who is usually screaming "Turnthat down!" way before this point. That myfiancée could immediately enjoy such a scene,for the first time ever, is a tribute to theenhanced, palpable realism of the YSP-1'simmersive and believable 3D soundstage.

Another reference-quality disc, Standing inthe Shadows of Motown, was next in therotation. This disc, like most music-centricDVDs, does not appear to have had its uppermid and treble frequency spectrum attenuatedwhen the transfer was made to DVD. Cue upChapter 5, the Joan Osborne rendition ofMartha and the Vandellas' hit "Heat Wave" andyou’ll hear what I am describing.

With full orchestration by the Funk Brothers,the YSP-1 spews forth a soundstage which,though not as wide as would be the case if left-center-right speakers where at -30º, 0º and+30º angles, is far more realistic, exciting andconvincing because of the YSP-1's 3D spatialcapabilities. Close-up's of Joan's front-and-center vocal, do not command an expansivesoundstage. Yet the realism of her voice is likeall vocals I heard with Yamaha's magic box. It isclear, natural, open and nuanced. Her voiceappears not to come from the speaker, butinstead it is out-of-the-box real.

This particular cut does, however, begin topoint out one of the trade-offs that evidently hasbeen made with the Digital Sound Projector.The frequencies the YSP-1's small drivers aremost capable of throwing furthest would appearto be in the 3-6 kHz range. It is this samerelative frequency range that famous theaterspeakers like Altec Lansing's A7 500 "Voice ofthe Theater" used in the '40s and '50s togenerate enough sound power levels out to theaudience.

Back in that time, movie theater interiorswere often entirely surrounded by heavy drapes.The natural bump in the 3-10 kHz frequencyrange of Altec's horn mid-tweeter was thesolution for achieving flat sounding frequencyresponse for most theater goers. Today's hometheater is a different application. Nevertheless,this Yamaha's beam-throwing, frequencyresponse curve is complementary to mostDVDs. So the design of the YSP-1's responsecurve appears to have been carefully tailored forthe most realistic surround effect that can bethrown furthest.

“Years from now home theater enthusiasts

may be reading whole articles on the available

models within the Digital Sound Projector

category. For the present though, there exists

only the category-defining Yamaha YSP-1, a

brilliant marriage of compact form with simply

amazing multi-channel synthesis capability.”

Patrick Hart

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Turn to Disc Two from the Standing in the ofMotown disc and listen to three jam sessions bysome of the world's best musicians. These cutssound like what you would experience if youcarried the microphone around the room whilenext to the camera man. The ambience of thisfamous recording studio is stitched into thespace of your listening room by the YSP-1. Youhear the juxtaposition of the different musicians,the reverberations from those hallowed Motownwalls. You hear it all! I'm talking about beingimmersed in the musical exhilaration of an eventwhich only a lucky few ever experience. TheYSP-1's three dimensional portrayal of thismusical event is simply phenomenal.

Again though, when the camera moves tothe Funk Brother's tambourine man, the front-and-center energy of his instrument sohighlights the 3-6 kHz frequency region that theoverall sound becomes grating and losesdelineation. This segment is one of the manyreasons why Standing in the Shadows ofMotown is such a great reference disc. Thisscene in particular is torture in the extreme foreven very high-end tweeters. It is infinitelyharder for the YSP-1's much fuller rangedrivers to be expected to handle.

For the two movie examples just described,the average SPL levels, measured at thelistening position (8 feet away), ranged between95-98dB using the Radio Shack meter. Atthese very loud levels the YSP-1 remained veryclean and unstrained sounding except on themost over-the-top interjections of sound suchas when the F14's afterburners kicked in. Atthis instant it did appear that the YSP-1 wentinto hard clipping. But I must emphasize thatthis was the only instance when I could actuallysay yes, the unit is clipping.

For the rest of my listening it seemed as if

the YSP-1 was playing impossibly loud andcleanly when producing its prodigious SPLoutput. So I would conclude that some veryclever soft-clipping circuitry has been designedinto these 10-channel digital chips. Better thanI've yet heard from any moderate power digitalamps up to this time.

Okay, any other nits? Yes, a couple:The Yamaha YSP-1, in order to sound its

best, must have a least one subwoofer tosupply the required low frequency balance ifyou want to crank this puppy hard. In my set-upI was using a 650-watt, sealed 10" and an850-watt sealed 12". Both subs had beenequalized in my listening space to within ±2dBfrom 20Hz to 100Hz. It was only with thismonstrous bass accompaniment that I was ablepush the YSP-1 hard enough SPL-wise toinduce audible clipping.

Second, in my open floor plan living roomwith corner placement, the YSP-1 cannotsynthesize a fully round "sound bubble" like anactual set of -90º and +90º dipoles or bipolescan. This is almost an impossibility given that

1 Ltd's Design Engineer adds:

One of the subtle but very powerfuladvantages of generating all of the 5-channel sound from the same set ofloudspeakers and amplifiers is that there isinherent dynamic power sharing; so thatwhen one channel is quieter it leaves all itsunused headroom available for use by theother channels. Thus, the continuous maxpower available on any one channel is thesame as the continuous max poweravailable on all channels simultaneously.

Dr. Hooley adds:

This is likely related to the almostspherical waves emitted by the centrechannel when its focal length is setnegative, e.g. to say ~-0.5 to –1.5m.

the sound-beam-throwing phenomenaexploited by the YSP-1 depends on the ear-brain being able to triangulate a point of soundusing the sound source and both ears. Onceone ear is blocked by one's head, such aswould be the case for a sound at ±90º from the0º listening position the "full-round-surround"effect is much more difficult to synthesize.

The upshot of the preceding paragraph isthat for the YSP-1's power and small driversize, sound "beams" can only be made sonarrow and therefore project only a specificdistance with a limited amount of power beforethe beam spreads out and loses both powerand focus. The YSP-1 does, therefore, havethe potential to perform even better in a smaller,rectangular room, mounted not in the corner butagainst one of the wall surfaces. I plan to followup this first review with a further thoughts piecewhen I move the YSP-1 into my smaller, almostsquare home office. Stay tuned...

Summing UpThe Yamaha YSP-1's Digital Sound

Projection is totally different and much moreimmersive and believable than I've heard fromanything less the most precisely placed andcalibrated "traditional" circle-of-surround set-ups. It is more real; and truly three dimensionalin its ability to convincingly envelop the listener.

Center channel dialog can be tuned withinthe software to portray an actor's natural timbrewithout chesty upper bass frequency boostoften heard with horizontal D'Appolito-stylecenter channel speakers. Overdubbed voiceinsertions can more easily be detected within a movie scene because the voice will often exhibit the hooded mouth-too-close-to-the-microphone characteristic of a hastilyadded section of dialog. Conversely, a vocalrecorded in the natural environment of thescene will be heard as such.

This natural, out-of-the-box effect is usuallyonly heard from very flat-responseloudspeakers which also have a very smoothpolar response envelope. The YSP-1's center-channel articulation prowess, properly tuned, isamong the most naturally detailed I've heard.

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Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound ProjectorSubjective Score Card

The scoring below is based on each speaker doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers areweighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating equal to:Performance x Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product inquestion. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing speakers in future reviews that havelower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate speakerssolely based on performance, and each reviewer has their own system for ratings.

Audioholics Ratings Scale:Outstanding (reserved for features or areas that exceed market norms)

Above Average

Average

Below average

Very poor

Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector – MSRP: $1499

Yamaha Electronics6660 Orangethorpe Avenue • Buena Park, CA 90620

(714) 522-9105 • www.yamaha.com/yec

HARDWAREYamaha DVD-S1500

Infinity Intermezzo 1.2SInfinity CSW-10

Hand-made DH Labs interconnectsLMS (Loudspeaker Measure System by Linear X)

Impact Acoustics XLR cable

DESCRIPTIONDVD-Audio/Video SACD player

850-watt (EIA Dynamic) subwoofer w/R.A.B.O.S.650-watt (EIA Dynamic) subwoofer w/R.A.B.O.S.

Frequency response measurement system50' XLR cable for LMS microphone

Associated Test Equipment

The naturalness of the YSP-1's centerchannel sound is carried through to all otherchannels in equal measure. That it may falter toan extent when trying to portray left-rightinformation, widely splayed out within an overlylarge, corner placement environment servesonly to outline one of the sole limitations of thismarvelous machine. (Perhaps, a bit moretweaking could be done with respect to ImageLocation?)

The ease with which the YSP-1 can engulfthe listener in a three-dimensional, immersiveenvironment, especially with a very typical,acoustically live room is head-and-ears abovemost wall or ceiling-mounted surround speakersystems. Women notice this honest portrayal-of-naturalness difference immediately. Plusthere are no ugly protuberances adorning theirwalls or sound attempting to be hidden withinthe walls. No ugly wires either.

That the YSP-1 easily and handily out-performs the popular cube systems in the sameprice ballpark isn't the point. Rather, Yamaha'sDigital Sound Projector hopefully marks thefirst, almost perfectly executed volley in a newconsumer electronics category - Digital SoundProjectors. Bravo!

By Patrick HartEmail - info@audioholics.com

Non-exclusive reprint rights have been provided toYamaha Corporation to reprint and freely distributethis review. Any other uses or instances of thisreview by other parties or by Yamaha Corporationare prohibited without prior approvals fromAudioholics. The original review can be viewedonline at www.audioholics.com

METRICBuild Quality

Cosmetic Design; vs. genreDesign Execution; fit & finish

System Hook-upEase-of-Software-Set-up

Power; 20W x 2, 2.5W x 40Subwoofer Bass; 20-120Hz

Satellite Bass; 80-200HzMidrange; 200-2000Hz

Treble - 2-20KHzCenter Ch; vocal articulationLft-Ctr-Rt; spectral balance

Surround ImmersionSurround SpecificityRemote ergonomicsRemote functionality

Overall

Value

RATING COMMENTSSuperb, category-defining,

very high-quality construction

First-of-category: Timeless, understated elegance

Materials and colors beautifully integrated

Simplest of all systems tested to date. Only 5 or 6 inter-connections!

Completely new set-up concepts, Owner's Manual barely adequate

Perfectly matched to & shared among all drivers. Low THD, high SPLs

External subwoofer required

Good to 80Hz lower limit, excellent performance,sealed 4.5" mid-woofers

Very good octave-to-octave spectral balance

6.1KHz peak, required for beam throwing, degrades audio-only listening

Excellent when properly EQ'ed per program w/treble & bass

Narrowed L-R image width w/corner location w/3 Beam+Stereo mode

3-D, floating-in-space effect. Trumps 2-D ±90º side monopoles & rears

±90º "image-bubble" width not optimal in largeroom, corner location

Non-lit. Otherwise excellent layout

Integrates easily, works most functions of ancillary equipment (TV, DVD)

n /a

3/4

3/4

3/4

3/4

1/2

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