yamaha NS-BP4500 6.1 speaker system --First impressions

[mustang_steve]

Well I up and got my first apartment of my own, so it was time to get a real surround sound setup....bad part I only had a few hundred bucks and an old yamaha 5.1 receiver.

So to EBay! $200 shipped later (haha my cables cost $20 more!), I ended up with this set...and boy was I surprised when I got the package.

IT WAS FREAKING HUGE!...I could hide bodies in this box! Well, it had two 6.5" 3-way mains, a dual 4" two way center, I assume (grill wont come off) 3 4" 2-way rears, and a 6.5" powered sub. Since I can't drive a sixth channel, I quickly threw that one in my closet, but the rest were quickly installed.

First run...no sub. I was rather unimpressed, yes it was surround, but something was missing...I played movies, and no luck.

Second run, sub, and tuning. The sub is in a bad spot but I dealt with it well. This made a HUGE difference in the sound. I suspect yamaha may have put a high pass filter on all the speakers to increase power handling, thus requiring a sub. However, when watching king arthur, the sound was very satisfying, solid bass (not all that deep, but it could hit), and excellent soundstage.

The downfall of this system is that it's a bit too bass heavy, it's not boomy, it's just that the mids and treble don't stand out as much as they should. I do have a better model yamaha sub I am going to try in place of the stock one, hopefully it's deeper response and lower crossover points will allows for me to get the sound I desire.

However for a $200-250 speaker set...it gets a good thumbs up from me!

What it is:
entry-level surround sound
well built
excellent surround presentation

what it's not:
detailed
deep bass
cube speakers

summary: if you are starting out your home theater, and are on a tight budget, these speakers are great. Coupled with the receiver I have (bought two years ago for $150 new), I have a $350 surround sound setup that is in my opinion a great bargain.


edit: turns out the sub tuning is FAR more important than I thought...the treble was far clearer once I turned off the sub...my only guess is that the sub is just skewing my perceptions since it's up too much. I might just go back to using my larger sub since it's far more tunable....but then I lose the nice aesthetics of having piano lacquer black speakers all around.