Yamaha 2500 and Verizon FiOS TV first impression
Very happy.
Yesterday Verizon came and hooked up the fiber-optic TV service. Standard def downstairs, high def with DVR upstairs.
High def on a 92" screen should be the standard in every home.
The Verizon service is EXTREMELY nice. No channel change lag - nice DVR setup menus. 180 SD channels and 25 HD channels - more Video-on-demand than I could shake a stick at.
Also received the 2500 yesterday from Ubid. It turned up in factory packaging with "b-stock" clearly marked on the exterior. I had asked Ubid about the YPAO mic and they said it was not included, so imagine my delight when I opened the box and there it was!
I got it hooked up to 4 little logitech 560 speakers for L, R, and L / R surrounds. Using a Yamaha indoor/outdoor as the center channel. No sub yet - I have to pick up the appropriate cordage from ratshack to convert the coax sub-out on the yamaha to the phono sub-in on the Logitech 560 sub. I know, I know, that a pretty sad little speaker set up, but its what I have now. I pulled the trigger on the 2500 early because it was a fabulous deal. The speakers and sub will follow eventually.
I watched some Olympics in HD (drooool), then after the wife went to bed I changed over to the HD concert channel - they were playing a U2 concert. I listened to a bit in 5.0 sound, then hooked up the YPAO mic, sat it on the arm of the chair I sit in (didn't want to rummage through closets to find the tripod yet), hid behind the couch, and pressed the auto setup button.
3 minutes of burps and squawks later it produced its recommended calibration. I quickly checked over the settings and the distances seemed about right - the EQ looked interesting and consistant with my beliefs about the Logitech satellite sounds. So I switched back to the concert in progress and was very pleased with the dramatic improvement in sound clarity. Eventually I'm going to get in and tweak the crap out of this (after the speaker finalization is done), but for the common user the YPAO seemed to do a very good job of cleaning up some of the coloration to sound produced by both the speaker and the room modes.
One thing I did notice during the burps and squawks was just how bad of a flutter echo I have in the room between the left and right walls. There is an untreated window on one side and a double-door on the other, both hard surfaces which set up a real pronounced "flutter" when excited the right way (clapping or the setup sounds). The first step will be to cover that window with some treatments (have to do that anyway for light control during the day) - then I'll work outwards from there. Probably some DIY absorber panels.
The on-screen display the 2500 puts out is very impressive! I've seen the Denon, Onkyo, and lower-end Yamaha setup screens and this one really puts it to shame. Very thoughtfully laid out and attractive.
Lots of processor modes for the sound - I'm a little overwhelmed at this point. Likely I'll set up a standard one based on input type and just go with that - that will take some crititcal listening to figure out.
Only nitpick so far:
The terminals on the back of the unit are pretty closely spaced - my only annoyance so far, and one that I will only have to deal with 2-4 times during the life of this unit so not a big deal.
So far, very happy with the purchase. Mad props to Mac for pointing this deal out on Ubid.
Pictures to follow this weekend. I was pretty embarrased by my wiring, I really just threw it together to get it up and runnning. I'll clean it up as soon as I can stop enjoying it!
~Josh
