Specifications

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review
design philosophy of elegant, simple-of-line,
design execution. This philosophy has held
especially true whenever rare milestone
products such as the YSP-1 are first
introduced.
In the US, a little known aspect of Yamaha's
manufacturing prowess is their line of high
style, exquisitely made, wood furniture (since
1903) available only in the Japanese market.
So there is quite a long history of design
thought given to melding what is hoped will be
an elegant statement-piece of electronics into a
home environment.
I had been told that first samples of the YSP-
1 were already shipping. And since my review
sample came in an unmarked box my guess is
that these shipments would follow Yamaha's
long-held practice of sending the first lots to
company rep organizations as well as press to
see if there were any last minute issues which
might have slipped past the engineering team.
This lot of product is usually dubbed pre-
production. A couple hundred pieces are
typically "test run" on the actual production line
to check last possible assembly glitches that
could compromise the product's build integrity.
Also of note at this final stage of development
is that all actual tooled production parts are
used. So the following comments on the
product's fit, finish and overall design should be
virtually identical to final production.
At a suggested retail of $1499 SRP the
YSP-1's well chosen and expensive
construction materials plus exemplary fit and
finish set a benchmark for every subsequent
product to emulate. My significant other
immediately approved the classy, muted silver-
gray perforated metal grille across the upper
span of the unit's face. She loved the fact that
in most room lighting, the 42 black drivers
mounted on a flat-black background behind the
grille make them invisible. The bottom front
area sports a clear Plexiglas-over-high-gloss-
black background running lengthwise across
the entire device. The subtle dull-to-shiny blend
of the grille versus the base was also highly
regarded in my household.
Behind the plexiglas in the unit's bottom-
center is a 4" x 1/2" flouroscan dot-matrix
display in a muted blue. This is my favorite
choice of display technology and color as it is
equally readable both in darkness and in most
typical lighted room conditions. (The light level
of this display is adjustable from 0 to -1 or -2 in
the software. I found -2 worked equally well in
darkness or daylight conditions.)
The YSP-1 Remote
I'm big, really big on easy-to-use remotes.
I’m just guessing here but I'd say Yamaha's
YSP-1 engineering team must have taken
several samples home for their wives and kids
during development. The basic operations are
simplicity in the extreme, and intelligently
grouped along the remote's bottom 40% of real
estate. The remote works within a pretty
generous ±30º window and at that 30º angle
it's good for full functionality to about 20 feet.
There are some really clever ergonomic
touches that are not apparent until you study
the remote's layout a bit more closely. For
example, the TV channel up-down buttons have
been moved up and out of the most-used
bottom sector. (Keep it on channel 3!)
Another brainy move was placing all the set-
up routine buttons in a sort of "no-man's-land"
center section around the ubiquitous Up-Down-
Left-Right directional wheel with center Select
button. This leaves a neatly divided and simple-
to-use remote with most-used, single-push
controls at the bottom.
At the top are secondary controls which the
kids or grandparents would use less often once
the movie or TV program is started. This is a
remote I can remember easily and, for instance,
coach my fiancée's grandfather over the phone
should he get in trouble. Just set it up once,
warn kids and novices to stay away from
buttons with green nomenclature in the center
area, and you're home free. It doesn't get any
better than that!
Along the remote's bottom are the four
available beam modes. This section has a violet
background which immediately identifies this
remote as belonging to the Digital Sound
Projector. (As we shall see later in the review all
four beam modes are available when the YSP-
1 and your video display are placed flat against
a wall surface. For a corner arrangement, only
two of the four modes, Stereo and 3 Beam
mode are available.)
Above the beam mode selection buttons are
a soft-white TV input selector and four dark
gray source selection buttons for TV, DVD,
VCR and aux. The owner's manual suggests
aux can be either a digital satellite tuner, digital
cable or a game console. There is even a sleep
mode button which alternates by single presses
between 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes,
120 minutes and off.
The next section up from beam mode
selection will be the most utilized. And it is here
To the right along the bottom are four square,
flat black tact-switch-style push buttons labeled
Input, Volume - / + and Standby/On. To the
Left along the bottom is a barely discernable
Yamaha logo with "Digital Sound Projector
YSP-1." A 0.2" wide x 6.25" high gloss black
plastic end-cap finishes off both left and right
sides of the perforated grille.
Moving around to the back, the unit's
materials and quality of finish are every bit as
impressive. Presumably to contain EMI radiation
that may be emitted from the digital amplifier
chips, a double-layer steel chassis has been
fabricated with overlapping seams. The outer
black-oxide coated chassis sits atop an eight-
tenths width plastic injection-molded base. On
the YSP-1's top, two black-anodized aluminum
extrusions form the upper cover. A plastic cap
which has the Yamaha logo reverse-embossed
is affixed at the top center to cover the seam of
the two aluminum extrusions.