Yamaha YSP-1 Setup
One of the most outstanding aspects of the YSP1's all-in-one design IS its all-in-one design. As long as you mount the Digital Sound Projector either above or below your video display all other room and imaginary speaker placement locations can be input into the unit's DSP.
Even after having an absolute ball with this system for the last two weeks I still laugh in dumbfounded amazement every time I try a new set-up. After working so many years carefully figuring out front and surround speaker placement in dozens of rooms, it's hard to describe the feeling of being able to simply plop a single box on top of my TV, hook-up five or six interconnects and having immersive home theater like I've never experienced - all in less than 30 minutes.
For basic hook-up to the TV, DVD, etc, the directions are well-written with clear, simple illustrations. Once all the hard-wiring is complete the on-screen set-up menu system will need to be utilized. Yamaha has anticipated that most people will not want to read too far into the set-up before they actually hear sound so the first Set Menu screen has only three choices: Memory, Easy Set-up and Manual Set-up.
A word of advice? Choose Easy Set-up and go through the two-minute, four-step program to get sound coming out of your magic box. It's simple. Select:
- Room Type : Square or rectangle? Got an L-shaped room? Choose rectangle.
- Spe a ker Position : Square has 4 choices including offset and corner. Rectangle has 8.
- Room Size : 3 general dimensions given. Pick the closest dimensions to your room.
- Set-up Ok a y ? Say yes and input your first program into one of the three preset memories.
Sound comes out of the magic box. Surround sound floating in space . Center vocal sound that is up front, natural and clear. The initial audio impact of the YSP-1 will likely be far different than you've everexperienced . Enjoy the sound while you read a bit about Manual Set-up...
Phil Shea, has been Yamaha's point man for training on new products for longer than he'll care to admit. After seeing the reviewer/factory rep version of the YSP-1's owner's manual with its very succinct set-up instructions I decided to give Phil a call to see what he'd learned about the YSP-1.
It turns out that Phil had received his first unit in November '04 so he had spent quite a bit of time with the Yamaha magic box. He alerted me to a couple of labeling mistakes in the YSP-1's Manual set-up sequence which I'll cover in a couple of minutes. Phil's main suggestion to bear in mind when setting up, for instance, 3-Beam Mode (which I needed to use for my initial corner YSP-1/TV position) was to go through the entire set-up in the order in which they are presented in the menu. Deviate from that order by jumping to the end of the menu to change a parameter and you may wind up changing a parameter further upstream. Do that and you'll probably have to start over.
A screen I'd like to see added is a User-memory Table of Contents which shows all the settings that exist for that preset. As it is, unless a table is hand-written for each of the parameters to be input you'll have no way of remembering what you have engaged that works. If, on the other hand, you take some hard measurements of your room ahead of time, and you make a little top-view sketch of your room beforehand, you'll have a much easier time getting your first manual set-up in the ballpark sound-wise.
Once you've got that first program input into one of the three User program memories (I'd suggest memory 3) then you can go back through the exercise again and tweak your settings from there.
