RX-Z1 AV Processor

The RX-Z1 comes with every imaginable DSP mode currently offered by Yamaha. DSP processing is handled by Yamaha's proprietary twin 44 bit YSS-910 DSP's while digital decoding by the 32bit YSS-938 decoder. The DSP Processor offers 41 DSP soundfields with a total of 61 variations to tailor the sound to your liking, allowing you to transform your living room into the Village Gate Jazz Club of New York or the Roxy Rock Club of LA, and much more.

While I found a majority of the DSP modes to be too overwhelming, I managed to tone down a few of my favorites to achieve an expanded and very enjoyable soundfield which is ordinarily not possible with conventional Processors. The jazz club modes worked very well in my set-up when listening to concert DVD's such as those from Eric Clapton, and Steely Dan. The Rock Concert DSP modes favored concert DVD's from Shakira, Janet Jackson, and Fleetwood Mac. Even old VHS concerts such as "The Way We Walk" from Genesis took on new life when I engaged some of the Hall DSP settings offered on the RX-Z1. It really gave me the illusion of when I personally attended the last Genesis live performance, as we knew them. And, it had me longing for those days, wishing the band was still at the forefront in a world where two chord rock, prefabricated gangster Rap, and MTV cribs now seems more prevalent.

I personally enjoyed the Prologic II and DTS Neo music modes over any of the DSP modes when listening to conventional CD's. These modes really helped expand some of my older recordings such as U2's Joshua Tree, and Marillions "Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other" making them listenable again on my reference system. However, when I decided to engage in serious two channel listening on well recorded sources, I preferred bypassing all processing and letting my front speakers and sub handle all the music.

Listening to movies decoded in Yamaha's proprietary DSP movie modes, which utilizes dedicated front effects channels was a real eye opener. Yamaha offers dedicated front effects channels to help preserve the imaging of the main channels by sending the DSP signals to dedicated speakers located on the front wall usually a few feet above and slightly wider apart from the main speakers. I really like this approach with DSP processing and I personally wouldn't have it any other way after hearing just how effective this solution really was. I don't have any major qualms adding an extra two speakers up front since in my opinion, it's usually easy for folks to add a couple of more speakers on the front wall then the rear wall in a typical living room environment, and the benefits to me are clearly worthwhile if you are a DSP enthusiast.

My favorite mode for watching just about every DVD movie I threw at the RX-Z1 was the 70mm Digital Adventure mode. My past experience with the DSP A1 was similar in this surround mode, but I don't recall the center channel remaining so clearly focused and echo free on the DSP A1 without significantly turning down the parameters of this mode. The RX-Z1 DSP default settings seemed to be more conservatively chosen in my opinion. I never heard the center channel sound hollow or loose intelligibility when engaged in the major 70mm movie DSP modes. I was particularly blown away by the expansive rear surround field of these DSP enhancement modes, making me realize wonder what the beef is about THX, and just how silly it would be for my application to add another speaker to the back wall for a dedicated rear channel for ex/es modes.

In case you didn't know, I am really not the greatest advocate of adding another speaker or pair of speakers for rear center channel applications since a majority of DVD's currently available don't even offer EX/ES encoding, and those that do take advantage of this feature are usually encoded only in Dolby Digital EX which simply matrixes the rear center channels from the rear channels much like old prologic used to derive a front center channel from the mains. Only DTS ES offers a discrete rear center channel, however the software, at the time of this review, is very limited. In addition, most peoples rooms, mine included, cannot accommodate any more speakers on the rear wall. Usually the primary listeners are seated pretty closely to the rear wall where ideally the rear center speaker(s) would be located. Thus these speakers would fire at the listeners ear and may make them very localizable and unnatural sounding. Also, I believe if your rear speakers image well enough, the phantom center should be quite effective.

Listening to the extended release four disc boxset of "Lord of the Rings" was breathtaking on the Yamaha RX-Z1. In fact, I never had such an involving experience with any other Processor I had the privilege of reviewing, including my own reference Processor which when it was current sold for over $1200 more than the RX-Z1. Since this movie was encoded with DTS ES, I briefly hooked up a rear center channel, using the Yamaha's internal amps, and replayed specific scenes that I was familiar with. Adding the rear center in this case did have some advantages as it helped to focus the soundfield specific for rear center placement, while providing a more fluidic rear surround soundfield. Although the advantages were less obvious to me when playing DD EX movies with the added rear center and at times it was actually distracting to me given that the rear center was located too closely to the listening position in my living room. It wasn't long before the wife noticed the cosmetic compromise of our livening room with the added speaker, and thus its benefit was soon nullified.

Switching back to 7.1 (5.1 + 2 front effect channels) I was continually amazed that the front to rear panning was so incredibly fluid and seamless, while the clarity and focus was second to none in my experience. I had similar experiences while listening to movies such as "Monsters Inc", and "Ice Age". I noticed that my movie viewing increased nearly double from my norm when evaluating the RX-Z1. I must have watched, or should I say listened, to some of these movies over again in their entirety just out of sheer sonic enjoyment that I perceived.