The Z-Base575 is a speaker and a TV base.
(Credit: Zvox)Sound bar speakers vastly simplify home theater setup and installation, but their sound quality always falls short of bona fide 5.1-channel speaker-subwoofer-based systems. The single-box Zvox Z-Base575 get closer to that ideal than most.
The problem with sound bars is they're too small. Even pricey bars like Yamaha's YSP-3050 ($1,199 MSRP) can't generate full-blown home theater impact. And it's a bit bigger than average (31.5 inches wide by 6.1 inches high by 6 inches deep), but films like "Mission: Impossible III" sound tepid over the YSP-3050. The film's explosive effects lack the excitement you'd get from a 5.1 system. Yamaha's technology is amazing, but it can't produce high-impact sound from skinny cabinets. I'm not singling out Yamaha here; Denon, Marantz, Polk, Samsung, and Sony sound bars all--to varying degrees--squash dynamic range of movies.
Stepping up to the YSP-4000 ($1,600 MSRP) won't make that big a difference; in my CNET review I noted that it stumbled with big special effect-driven flicks like "Mission: Impossible III." The explosions fell flat, the bass was rumbly, and the Yamaha couldn't play loud at all. Hooking up an Acoustic Research HT60 subwoofer to add extra muscle helped a little, but the YSP-4000 still lacked punch.
Part of the problem is that almost all sound bar speakers are too small. Zvox's Z-Base575 is big and very, very deep. How deep is it? Sixteen inches! So unlike other surround bar speaker systems that can either be wall-mounted or set on a shelf, the Z-Base575 was designed to be used as a base under your TV. Don't worry, the sturdy medium-density fiberboard cabinet can support heavyweight displays.
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The Tenori-On O is the plastic offspring of the original Yamaha Tenori-On.
(Credit: Yamaha)As a musician, one of my favorite moments of 2008 was the chance to meet Yu Nishibori and his musical invention, the Tenori-On. Coming across like a futuristic cross between a drum machine and a game of Tetris, the Tenori-On music sequencer is one of those truly odd and beautiful devices that seems too cool to be real. Even the Museum of Modern Art saw fit to pick one up--one of only five instruments in its 4,000 item collection.
The problem was, it was just too expensive. You really needed to have a fetish for Japanese electronic music sequencers to pick up an original Tenori-On for $1,499 ($1,200 street). Thankfully, the folks at Yamaha are now announcing a second generation of the Tenori-On (the Tenori-On "O"), priced at a relatively affordable $999 MSRP.
The Tenori-On "O" is virtually identical in form and function as the original, but Yamaha did have to cut a few corners to get the price down. For starters, it's made of white plastic instead of the luxurious hand-brushed magnesium used on the original. The grid is one-sided now, which makes it a little less exciting to view as a spectator. And perhaps most disappointing, you can't run the "O" version from batteries--you have to keep it plugged in.
Still, if you can live with some sacrifices, the Tenori-On "O" should still make for an extremely fun and engaging music machine. Expect to see these on sale in January 2010.
The Yamaha EC-f is an electric motorcycle concept designed for ease of use.
(Credit: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc.)
Just as carmakers develop electric cars, motorcycle manufacturers also see the writing on the wall, showing off a collection of electric bikes at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The Tokyo Motor Show has always played host to a substantial display of motorcycles, and this year is no different--except that the highlights of the show all have a green angle. Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki all brought concepts to the show that could spell the future of riding, and possibly a new way for future commuters to get to work.
Check out photos of electric scooters and motorcycles at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.
CHIBA, Japan--Want to request a song from a creepy childlike automaton? There's an app for that.
At Ceatec 2009, Yamaha showed off its prototype HRP-4C robot, which can show a range of motions, strut down a catwalk, and now belt out tunes from a preselected list.
During the demonstration Tuesday, audience members were encouraged to use their iPhones to request one of six songs from the raven-haired robot, decked out in futuristic stormtrooper gear. The winning track is titled "Give Me Wings."
The HRP-4C was featured as part of Yamaha's Play IT initiative, which explores ways to incorporate music and information technology to teach and learn musical instruments. Check out the short clip of her performance below.
When it's not enough to let your iPhone control your life, you can have it control a robot.
An enterprising tinkerer in Japan has turned an iPhone 3GS into a humanoid robot by wiring it to a mechanical body.
Meet "Robochan."
Check out the video. Robochan is perhaps disturbing, but undeniably cute. The anime face and leek-waving are nods to Hatsune Miku, a character created for Yamaha's Vocaloid singing synthesizer application. Hatsune is a virtual idol in Japan; one of her albums topped the Oricon music chart last month.
Robochan consists of a 3GS wired to a Kondo Kagaku KHR-2 HV kit robot through its doc connector. The 3GS serves as the controller for the humanoid body, a popular kit which retails for about $900 with much assembly required.
Robochan can speak, dance, wake you up at a preset time, learn motions taught by hand, and react when its screen is touched. Its creator has also wired the iPod touch to a robot, as seen here.
Via Pink Tentacle
You may be able to make much better sound without auto setup.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)Auto speaker setup and calibration is a popular feature on almost every receiver and a lot of home-theater-in-a-box systems.
Sure, it sounds like a peachy idea, but the accuracy of auto setup is hardly a sure thing; and at their worst, auto setup systems sound worse than no setup at all.
Ideally, the setup system automatically determines speaker sizes (large or small), measures speaker-to-listener distances, sets the volume levels of all of the speakers, determines the proper subwoofer volume level, checks that all the speaker wires' "+" and "-" connections are properly oriented at the speaker and receiver ends, and calculates the subwoofer-to-speaker crossover point. Some receivers also employ EQ (equalization) curves to correct for speaker and room acoustic anomalies.
What's not to like? Well, it the auto setup worked perfectly, nothing.
But they're mostly flawed: Subwoofer calibrations are almost always off. Auto calibration systems boost the sub volume much too high, and overestimate the sub distance to the listener by a factor of two (so a 10 foot distance becomes 20 or more feet).
Worse yet, auto setup systems rarely set the subwoofer-to-satellite speakers crossover frequency to the optimum point. That is, they tend to set the crossover too high, say 150 Hertz, which unnecessarily restricts the speakers' bass response. The speakers might sound better with a lower crossover setting. I recommend 80Hz for all speakers with 4- to 6-inch woofers; 100Hz for 3-inch woofers; and higher settings of 120Hz or 150Hz only for the tiniest speakers.
Accessing the measurement data post auto setup can be tricky on some receivers. Then you really don't know what you have.
Thing is, manual setup isn't all that difficult and will likely be more accurate. And chances are you wouldn't muck up the distances as poorly as the autosetup would. Running the test tones over the speakers and manually adjusting the sound by ear or with a Radio Shack meter isn't so hard to do.
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Great-sounding home theater is becoming increasingly rare, as consumers move toward space-saving solutions like soundbars and tiny home-theater-in-a-box systems (HTIBs). If you still care about sound, have a budget around $1,000, and want the convenience of an all-in-one package, the choice largely comes down to two systems: the Onkyo HT-S9100THX ($1,100 list price) and the Yamaha YHT-791BL ($800, the subject of this review).
The two systems are very similar: you get a component-grade AV receiver with four HDMI inputs, plus a big, boxy 7.1 speaker system that delivers better sonics than the rest of the HTIBs on the market. Working against the Yamaha is that its receiver can't assign inputs and the subwoofer isn't quite as musical as we'd like. On the other hand, the Yamaha costs about $150 less and we did really appreciate the included iPod dock; Onkyo charges an extra $140 for its DS-A3.
While we can't make a definitive statement about which of the two systems is better for you, we can say the Yamaha YHT-791BL delivers almost all of the performance of the higher-priced Onkyo system and includes an iPod dock for $150 less, making it a smart choice for audiophiles on a budget.
Yamaha is unique among home audio manufacturers in that its prepackaged home theater systems include the same AV receivers that are offered as standalone units. We received the Yamaha YHT-791BL home theater system for review and were impressed with the included HTR-6250BL AV receiver compared with other home-theater-in-a-box systems, but we also wanted to see how it compared with other standalone AV receivers.
On its own, the Yamaha HTR-6250BL wasn't as impressive. Yes, it has four HDMI inputs and plenty of analog video connections, but the HTR-6250BL lacks the ability to assign inputs, which limits its flexibility. It also has the ability to upconvert analog video signals to 1080p over its HDMI output, but the quality of the video is poor enough that you're better off running a separate cable. Finally, the HTR-6250BL's sound quality was acceptable, but we've certainly heard better at this price level. While the HTR-6250BL offers a solid value as part of the larger YHT-791 system, the receiver doesn't stack up as well when compared with other standalone receivers in its price range.
Over the last few years, AV receivers have been integrating all sorts of functions necessary for a modern home theater, including video upscaling, media streaming, and video switching. It's good in some ways, but bad in others; when we reviewed Denon's AVR-3808CI, we were thrilled about how much we could do with it, but much less excited about how confusing it was to operate.
Yamaha's newly announced neoHD series of products continues to consolidate functionality in your AV receiver, but also focus on ease-of-use, including a graphical user interface with icon-based navigation and the ability to control other devices with IR blasters.
(Credit:
Yamaha)
Yamaha announced three new products in the neoHD line: the YMC-500, YMC-700, and YMC-S21.
The entry-level YMC-500 includes much of the functionality found on a midrange AV receiver, plus advanced ability to control other devices and playback media off its USB port. There are three HDMI inputs, two component video inputs and a single composite video input, and the YMC-500 can upconvert those signals to its HDMI out. In fact, you have to upconvert analog signals because there are no analog video outputs. There are also two digital audio inputs, one optical and one coaxial. Speaker connections are limited to spring-clip connectors, which is disappointing, but we're assuming that was done to save space on the back panel.
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Yamaha may be better known for its AV receivers and home theater systems, but the company was one of the early entrants in the digital-audio-receiver category, with audiophile-centric products like the Yamaha MCX-1000 MusicCast server. MusicCAST 2 is the second iteration of Yamaha's digital-audio-streaming platform, and it enters a product category that is now much more mature, with several recommendable products such as the Sonos BU150, Logitech Squeezebox Duet, and Apple TV.
Yamaha MCX-RC100 Network Music Commander.
The easiest way to get into Yamaha's MusicCAST2 platform is the ZonePack Solution ($1,100), which consists of a Network Music Commander ($500) and two Amplified Network Music Players ($400 each). The Network Music Commander is a touch-pad-style remote with a color LCD-screen that gives you full control over your digital music; it's very similar to Sonos' Controller. The Amplified Network Music Players allow you to simply connect a pair of speakers to enable music streaming to any room within your Wi-Fi network.
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