Bridgeboy said:
I just ordered the Yamaha YSP-1000! I’m not an audiophile, but I want true 5.1 surround sound for movies and accurate positional sound for games (without all the wires spread around my living room for satellite speakers like I have now). From what I can tell, the difference of the YSP-1000 over the YSP-1 is that it comes with its auto-calibrating system with a satellite microphone for taking measurements and auto-adjusting the appropriate settings. And I already have a separate powered subwoofer that I can add to the system.
I’ll report back on my experience!!
Well I was finally able to play around with my YSP-1000 this weekend. I compared the performance of the YSP-1000 with my RCA audio receiver with accompanying 5.1 satellite speakers with various video games and also several DVD movies with directional sound effects. I would play a particular scene from a movie over and over with outputting the sound through the satellite speakers and then play the scene again through the YSP-1000 and compared the performance. I did the same thing with some video games with positional sound sources. The included auto-calibration microphone included with the YSP-1000 is well worth it and only takes about 3-mintes to calibrate itself to your particular listening environment. I rearranged my living room a couple of times to find the best position for my TV/YSP-1000 and compared its performance (I have wood floors so it relatively easy to slide furniture around). As narrow as the YSP-1000 is, It balances very well and is pretty darn stable just sitting on top of the narrow ledge of my Samsung HL-R6168W. I did however, secure it down better than by just relying on gravity to hold it there. I went out and bought those little double-sided foam tape things that they sell these days…the ones that can be removed by pulling on the little flap that stretches the material until it pops loose…..I put one of those at each corner where it sits directly on top of the TV and I can now shake the TV and the YSP-1000 stands firm. The plastic and foam Velcro fasteners that are provided with the YSP-1000 are too unstable….they allow the unit to rock back and forth too much because of the compressible nature of the foam under the plastic pegs. The double-sided foam tape is less compressible and provides a much more solid and stable surface.
Here is my take:
It is not ‘quite’ as good as my satellite 5.1 speaker system in producing the rear channel sounds. I did quite a bit of experimentation with different video games and DVD’s and although the YSP-1000 does a pretty good job of synthesizing sound from behind you, you can still also hear the sound also coming from the front and/or side of the room as well. When comparing this to my satellite rear speakers, the rear sounds come only from the rear. Now in a movie experience watching a DVD this makes little difference, however, if you want true, accurate positional sound in a video game, and not be wondering…”wait, did that footstep come from the side of me or behind me?” then a satellite 5.1 speaker system is the way to go. However, I am sort-of splitting hairs here, and the YSP-1000 does do a good job of it, just not a perfect job of it.
The front left and right channels are separated very well however, and I can tell little if any difference between the YSP-1000 and my satellite speaker system in the surround effects across the front right to left.
All in all, I am impressed with the YSP-1000. For me, it does a good enough job that I have decided to keep the YSP-1000 (even for gaming) and have already taken down my satellite system. Besides, the YSP-1000 is just plain cool
; and versatile as well. The ‘slight’ loss in accurate positional sound from the rear channels for gaming is not a big enough deal to outweigh the fact that I now have a neater, cooler looking home theatre/gaming environment in my living room without all the speaker cables running everywhere. And the versatility of it is great with its “target” mode where you can aim the sound in a particular direction……which is great for me when I’m working out on my Bowflex or Treadmill in an adjacent room I can just aim the sound directly at me. With my satellite system I used to just crank the volume way up in order to hear dialog and such over the noise generated by running on the treadmill, and the fan I have blowing on me to cool me off. Now I won’t have to crank the volume as high, but rather just more effectively aim the sound directly at me instead of thumping the whole house. Plus, now anytime I want to rearrange the room its as easy as just running the 3-minute auto-calibration routine in the new configuration (instead of having to run speaker cables all around in a new configuration).
I have only played around with it this past weekend so far. I am quite pleased with at this point and I suspect that I will like it even more the more I use it. The only way you can tell that its not ‘quite’ as good as a satellite system (for rear channels) is if you have the two system both set up, side by side, and objectively compared the two against one another as I did. If you don’t already have a 5.1 satellite speaker system then chances are you would be very impressed with this YSP-1000. Also, I may learn over time that I can manipulate and tweak the performance manually to be even better than what the auto-calibration has provided…..I guess I’ll see…..
