Yamaha YSP-1 digital sound projector

Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector won the prestigious Best Of Show award at the January 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and it's clear why. This slimline speaker generates a convincing 5.1 surround sound all on its own. It's tailor made to sit under 42in plasma TVs and has all the necessary surround decoding and amplification built in.

This is an attractive idea, especially if you don't want to spoil a stylish flatscreen TV with the clutter of five or six speakers and a chunky amp. Resembling a long centre speaker, it runs the full width of a 42in TV, so it's perfect for big plasmas, rear projection sets (with shelf stands or flat tops) and 36in CRTs. Yamaha is planning a smaller version for 32in screens in the future. It can also be wall-mounted, preferably just below the screen. It's simple to set up, needing just a mains plug, digital cable from your DVD player and/or Sky+ box and a composite video output for the on-screen interface. The construction quality is high and the look and feel of the remote and on-screen menu are fine. To get going quickly there's an Easy Menu to set the basic room size, the location of the speaker and your seating position. The decoder provides Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 as well as Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6 for expanded sound from simple sources.

How does it work?
Developed in Cambridge by 1Ltd, the sound projector was licensed to Pioneer in 2002, whose floorstanding PDSP-1 retailed for a whopping £25,000. Yamaha's £800 version is not identical, of course. The YSP-1 is much smaller and has 40 sound beam speaker drivers instead of more than 250 but it shares many of the advantages and it's certainly more convenient and affordable.

Inside the casing is an array of 40x 4cm speakers. Each one is amplified digitally and there's a pair of 11cm bass drivers to boost stereo. The centre channel will beam right at you while the rear channels are bounced off side walls. Fed with the right measurements on installation, the system should know how to do this quite accurately. There's a stereo-only option or a three-beam mode without rear surround. You can also do fine tuning in the Manual Set-up to focus the sound beams for optimum effect, which we would recommend if you have the patience.

The menu allows you to tweak room measurements, seating position, beam angles, focal points, room EQ and levels and tone for each channel. It's quite something to hear the beams come in and out of range as you scan through the settings, proving that it does work, though this naturally favours one seating position more than others.

This versatile unit copes with different environments, though medium-sized rooms are best and if you've got lots of curtains or hanging textiles then the sonic bouncing can be affected. Yamaha's suggested room size range is 3-7m x 2-3.5m x 3-7m (WxHxD). Even putting it in a corner is fine, unlike many surround arrangements, though that does limit some beaming options.

How does it sound?
The blurb boasts that you get 'real' 5.1 sound. That's perhaps overstating it but it's vastly better than other 'pseudo' or virtual surround systems because it's a mixture of direct and reflected sound. For example the centre channel remains clear, so its dialogue handling is very good. The whole product is wide enough to cast a decent stereo image anyway, so any surround effects build on those credentials. Other virtual surround systems usually employ just two speakers, so dialogue clarity suffers when they're doing phase tricks or throwing sound in all directions.

Some of the YSP-1's sound effects can be rather brittle as it can't create deep bass. Due to this drop-off, you'll need a subtle and responsive subwoofer, even for Dolby Pro Logic II for music or TV, let alone full 5.1 movies. Though it's not normally best practice, you can make the sub work harder by setting the Yamaha's crossover to its 120Hz maximum.

In full flight with the likes of The Return Of The King, Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Fast And The Furious, this is an impressive device. It's a notable improvement on weedy stereo TV speakers and a decent replacement for compact surround packages. Its user friendliness is a great asset but its performance is enjoyable too. Epic movie sound effects actually do seem to swirl around the room.