Specifications

than adequate treble extension within the
context of TV or movie viewing. Also, the bump
at 6100Hz most probably corroborates well with
frequencies beginning lower, at around 3KHz in
rendering the "floating-in-space" sound portrait
the YSP-1 is capable of rendering.
The caveat to the 6100Hz peak is that with
movie music not specifically re-EQ'ed for DVD,
instruments with lots of high frequency
harmonic energy, like a tambourine, become
immediately fatiguing. The same holds true for
the CD and most music-only formats. As it is,
the YSP-1's frequency response appears to
have been specifically tailored to achieve
maximum beam- throwing efficiency as is
hinted by the inclusion of the multiple-frequency
polar 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 my
testing. The corner placement condition is the
one which my comments have alluded to up to
this point, so let's talk about the YSP-1's
performance in this most sonically challenging
situation...
After studying conceptual top-views of the
different beam modes I concluded that my more
open floor plan, with corner placement, was
quite a bit larger than the largest room-choice
given in the YSP-1's Easy Set-up menu. It
seemed apparent that I'd be asking the YSP-1
to strut its stuff in an almost worse-case
scenario.
By inputting and re-tweaking different
Manual program settings for a couple of days I
felt I had reached a point where I was getting
close to the maximum performance out of
Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector in my
particular environment. So, what better way to
wring out Yamaha's magic box than by renting
the newly-released DTS 6.1 Special Edition
version 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 its
tension-filled, slowly building musical score
began to define, then expand the surround
environment within my listening space.
I would describe the sound envelope of the
YSP-1, operating from a corner into such a
large space as a puffed-up trapezoid. This tall
trapezoid runs front-to-back with the top,
shorter base placed slightly
behind the YSP-1
and bottom, longer base spread out quite a bit
more way behind the listening area. This
bloated trapezoid listening bubble might, with
sources like Top Gun S.E. begin to approach a
circle in a smaller listening space. For the most
part though, the boundaries of the YSP-1's
trapezoidal acoustic bubble handily trumped, in
true 3-D spaciousness and realism, the "ideal"
circle-of-surround-sound usually defined by
actual surround speakers.
Listening to Top Gun's slowly building
musical theme wherein new and more complex
elements are added to Harold Faltermeyer's
score every few bars, the adrenaline build-up
from Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector splays
sound out further and wider into the room as
the SPL levels build naturally along with the
score. When, at the music's crescendo, the F-
14 jet hits full afterburner's on the carrier deck
you 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 my
significant other who is usually screaming "Turn
that down!" way before this point. That my
fiancée could immediately enjoy such a scene,
for the first time ever, is a tribute to the
enhanced, palpable realism of the YSP-1's
immersive and believable 3D soundstage.
Another reference-quality disc,
Standing in
the Shadows of Motown,
was next in the
rotation. This disc, like most music-centric
DVDs, does not appear to have had its upper
mid and treble frequency spectrum attenuated
when the transfer was made to DVD. Cue up
Chapter 5, the Joan Osborne rendition of
Martha and the Vandellas' hit "Heat Wave" and
you’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 and
convincing because of the YSP-1's 3D spatial
capabilities. Close-up's of Joan's front-and-
center vocal, do not command an expansive
soundstage. Yet the realism of her voice is like
all vocals I heard with Yamaha's magic box. It is
clear, natural, open and nuanced. Her voice
appears not to come from the speaker, but
instead it is out-of-the-box real.
This particular cut does, however, begin to
point out one of the trade-offs that evidently has
been made with the Digital Sound Projector.
The frequencies the YSP-1's small drivers are
most capable of throwing furthest would appear
to be in the 3-6 kHz range. It is this same
relative frequency range that famous theater
speakers like Altec Lansing's A7 500 "Voice of
the Theater" used in the '40s and '50s to
generate enough sound power levels out to the
audience.
Back in that time, movie theater interiors
were often entirely surrounded by heavy drapes.
The natural bump in the 3-10 kHz frequency
range of Altec's horn mid-tweeter was the
solution for achieving flat sounding frequency
response for most theater goers. Today's home
theater is a different application. Nevertheless,
this Yamaha's beam-throwing, frequency
response curve is complementary to most
DVDs. So the design of the YSP-1's response
curve appears to have been carefully tailored for
the most realistic surround effect that can be
thrown 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
WWW.AUDIOHOLICS.COM
10
review