Yamaha YSP-1

Personally, I've heard the unit, and you still need "gear" to make it work. Ok, so one speaker-does-it-all approach. Yeah, you're better off with just 2 well setup speakers and a hidden subwoofer, or a 2.1 system, maybe playing in 2 channel surround enhancement mode!! Soically, you can get much than the Yamie. Sorry, no free lunch.

Hi, I have the ysp800/800 sub in a concrete/glass studio and it is the best I could get for this type of environment. Cool auto set-up microphone based software and real sound for the $$$.

for the price, you can likely do better in a small 5.1 set up. The YSP is also very dependent on the dimensions of your room and the proximity of the side and rear walls. Properly set up and in the right room, it does a great job for its purpose. If you want a single box solution, with no wires (other than the sub, DVD and Cable/DSS box), it is not bad, just over priced.

We had the Yamaha rep in our store when this first came out and set it up for us on the fly, it sounded.....ok. I'd say it gave the effect of surround sound better than other one-speaker solutions (Polk soundbridge). Since it has more drivers that can help. I never understood how Polk said they could do it passively with only nine drivers. But yes, the room does have to be pretty small and rectangular (as our demo theater was). The sound didn't reach all the way behind you, more like just to the side of you, you could definitely tell it wasn't surround sound for real, but if you want the effect and don't want rear speakers, I'd give it a shot (and your room dimensions were fitting).
the Yamaha rep also told us that you could listen to two things at once, he used the example of side-by-side picture-in-picture, and said the YSP-1 could play one source out of one side and the other out of the other side, the center speakers would act to cancel out the sound from the opposite side so you didn't hear it. I don't know if it actually does this or not or how well it works since we never had it set up after he brought it in. Hope that helps some. Oh yea, and the YSP-1 does have a sub out on it so you can hook a sub in.

I auditioned the YSP-1 at the local Audio Video place here in Olympia, Washington. Personally, I think the Bose 3-2-1 system actually sounds better, because the YSP-1 has a bunch of 2 watt tweeters which make it sound really... not distorted, but loud, annoying, and irritating. It was neat to hear noise coming from the side wall, but for the money, I think the Bose 3-2-1 system's surround setup sounds better and it costs something like 400 dollars less (depending on the dealer).

The Yamaha YSP projectors are really nice for the money. I'm a 2-channel guy and I seperate my music system from my video. I have a 32" Sharp LCD and a YSP-800 underneith (exact width of the TV). I did not want to worry boying a bucnh of speakers, receiver, cables, etc. and this little device gives me exactly what i want. I am satisfied. If properly setup and tweaked it can offer beleivable 5.1 in a rectangular room.