European Loudspeaker 2009-2010 > B&W CM9

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European Audio Amplifier 2009-2010 -> Harman Kardon HK 990

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Was R85330.00

Now R60990.00

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Yamaha just unveiled the YSP-5100 and YSP-4100, its next generation of Digital Sound Projectors. Employing Yamaha's proprietary technology, both models deliver surround sound from a single speaker by employing dozens of separate audio beam drivers that deliver center channel sound directly, while sounds from other channels are heard reflecting off the walls around the listener. These units, which are ideal for placement beneath the latest flat screen TV models, provide HD Audio decoding and four 1080p-compatible HDMI inputs along with proprietary technologies including UniVolume for keeping the sound of TV programs and commercials and different sources at the same volume level, and yAired for wireless iPod and iPhone audio playback.
The YSP-4100 features 40 beam drivers and two woofers, each with dedicated amplifiers. The YSP-5100 is identical, plus two tweeters with dedicated amplifiers. Both units bypass the need for a separate receiver or amplifier, or additional speakers, making them the ideal surround sound solutions for small spaces or second rooms in multi-zone systems. Both models, which are significantly thinner than previous Digital Sound Projector models (3 ½ inch depth), can be wall-mounted or placed on a shelf or rack.

The YSP-4100 and YSP-5100 offer HD Audio decoding (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS HD High Resolution) to deliver the best possible sound from Blu-ray disc players and all other digital sources. Users can also choose from six listening modes (5 BeamPlus2 for 7.1 ch HD Audio, Stereo + 3 BeamPlus2, 5 Beam, Stereo + 3 Beam, 3 Beam and Stereo) to best suit their living spaces and content playing. Eleven Cinema DSP Modes (3 "movie," 3 "music" and 5 additional "entertainment" modes) offer even more options to further maximize the audio for any entertainment experience.

The YSP-5100 and YSP-4100 have 1080p-compatible HDMI (4 in/ 1 out) that enable the connection of multiple HDMI sources and the full enjoyment of 1080p monitors, Blu-ray disc players and HDTV set top boxes. They also feature analog to HDMI digital video upconversion that improve video composite and component signals to HD quality.

Yamaha's UniVolume feature maintains a consistent volume level between different channel, programs, commercials and input sources. For instance, when watching TV, the volume of commercials will not be louder than the program being viewed. The same is true when switching sources to watch a DVD or Blu-ray movie or to listen to music on CD. This is particularly helpful for late night watching and listening when spikes in volume can disturb others in the house or apartment building.

Stand-alone entertainment systems in their own right, both models have an integrated FM tuner and are fully Sirius Satellite Radio ready, broadening the user's listening choices. Yamaha's yAired technology allows users to wirelessly play audio from iPods and iPhones via the YSP-5100 and YSP-4100. By connecting a small transmitter (supplied with both YSP models) to an iPod or iPhone, users can take out their ear buds and share their favorite music, video and games with friends. This solution adds remote control capability to iPhones and iPods so users maintain direct access to what they want to hear. The yAired connected iPods/iPhones and YSP-5100/YSP-4100s automatically synchronize for powering on and off.

In addition to seamless wireless convenience, yAired technology offers key advantages over Bluetooth, including superior sound quality via uncompressed linear PCM audio transmission and no audio delay issues when watching video or playing games. Yamaha's proprietary Compressed Music Enhancer technology compensates for the lost detail of audio that is compressed during the "ripping" process to iPods and MP3 players, recapturing the essence of the original recording.

Those opting to add low frequency punch to their systems with optional subwoofers are able to quickly connect them via a supplied accessory package (which includes a SWK-W10 wireless subwoofer kit and a YIT-W10 wireless transmitter). Through wireless integration, users have the freedom to place any model subwoofer anywhere in the room without unsightly wires getting in the way.

Yamaha's exclusive IntelliBeam Automated System Calibration immediately readies the system to deliver optimum multi-channel sound reproduction with accurate image location by optimizing the level and frequency response of each beam. This is achieved via a microphone that monitors and analyzes a room's acoustics in less than three minutes.

Both the YSP-5100 and YSP-4100 are Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) compatible. When either the YSP-5100 or YSP-4100 are connected to CEC-compatible TVs, they will power on and off together with the TV, and the TV remote can be used to control the Digital Sound Projector volume. With CEC active, signals will pass through the YSP-5100 and YSP-4100 even if they are powered off.

Both models have RS-232C, IR pass through out and extended IR for custom installation functions and are sold with preset remote controls.

1.0 An Overview of Floor-standing Audiophile Loudspeakers
The floor-standing loudspeaker is your traditional audiophile speaker. Because of their large size and to-the-floor design, floor-standing speakers have the most bass, the largest soundstage and often overall the best sound money can buy.


2.0 Types of Floor-standing Audiophile Loudspeakers


2.1 Dynamic Speakers
Dynamic loudspeakers use traditional speaker drivers normally connected via a crossover network that sends the high frequencies to the tweeters, the midrange audio to the midrange driver and the low-frequency material to the larger woofers. Dynamic speakers can commonly be found as two-way bookshelf speakers, three-way floor-standing speakers or in even more complex configurations. Dynamic speakers are the most popular design of speakers in the audiophile and home theater markets.

2.2 Electrostatic Speakers
Electrostatic Speaker designs use a high voltage electrical field to drive a thin membrane between two perforated conductive plates called stators. Unless paired with a hybrid design using dynamic woofers (like MartinLogan speakers do), electrostats don't need a crossover system the way traditional dynamic loudspeaker systems do.

Fans of electrostats love their linear and low-distortion sound. Electrostats are very hard to drive and therefore need very powerful amplifiers to get high levels of sound pressure. An AV receiver is not a good match with a true electrostatic loudspeaker system. Electrostats are not known for their ability to reproduce deep bass and are, in most cases, physically very large.

2.3 Planar Speakers
Planar speakers use a thin membrane to create a three-dimensional sound that is beloved by a small group of older audiophiles. The most famous type of planar speaker is the Magnepan. Design flaws and technological limitations make planar speakers difficult to use in home theater applications. Also, don't let their thin size make you think they can be placed near a wall and still sound good. Planars need a lot of space between the speakers and the back wall of a listening room to sound their best. Planar speakers require a lot of power to play loudly and generally still can't keep up with dynamic or even electrostatic designs.

2.4 Ribbon Speakers
The term "ribbon" in the context of a conversation about speakers generally refers to the concept of using a thin ribbon driver, along with other, normally dynamic drivers to create the three-dimensionality and characteristic sound found in planar or electrostatic speakers without sacrificing power and dynamics. The most famous ribbon loudspeaker company today is Wisdom Audio, which makes the most expensive in-wall, ribbon-loaded speakers on the market today.

2.5 Horn Loaded Speakers
Horn speakers are used in cinema applications and in many recording studios. Horns have a distinctive sound on the high frequencies and are the speakers of choice for installations behind perforated screens, as they are highly efficient compared to traditional speakers and therefore will play loudly enough to make the behind-screen application sound good. Klipsch is the most well-known company currently selling horn loaded consumer-grade speakers.

2.6 Bi-polar Speakers
Bi-polar speakers fire both from the front and the back. Planar and electrostatic designs are bi-polar, which helps to create their distinctive three-dimensional sound. Bi-polar speakers can be dynamic or any number of other designs. Bi-polar speakers are more subject to the acoustics to the room than more traditional designs. Bi-polar rear and side-channel speakers have been in use in THX-certified theaters for more than a decade.

One of the Finest satelite speaker packages we have seen to date, superb quality construction and attention to detail when it comes to acoustic reproduction.

The entire package consists of a full 5.1 satelite set, 2 x fronts, 2 x rears and 1 x center channel. The sub included is the highly rated PV1 Sub, rated at 500w rms with dual 8" drivers mounted in a spherical chamber, this sub is great for movies and music whilst aesthetically doing it in style. All the Satelites can be wall mounted and wall mount brackets are included.

Available in Silver and Black, these are my first choice when it comes to satelite lifestyle speakers.

Take a look at our shop page for more details

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Was R20940.00
Now R16990.00

Loudspeaker manufacturer Klipsch is going green. It is amping up its green loudspeakers, and turning to solar power and other techniques to make its product line more energy-efficient. Klipsch is claiming that its horn-based loudspeakers use less power and produce more sound than other speakers.


The speakers are said to be able to produce three to six decibels more sound, using the same amount of power, compared to your standard loudspeaker. This is possible because with every three decibel increase in speaker sensitivity, the power must double. By incorporating a six decibel increase in sensitivity at no additional power consumption, the Klipsch speaker effectively cuts power consumption by 75%.

Klipsch is also considering adding solar panels to its Arkansas plant, and using finishes that have lower toxic emissions and other waste byproducts, in order to lessen the company’s overall impact on the environment.

Click here to go to Klipsch Product Page

Overview of Home Theater Subwoofers
Subwoofers are speakers designed specifically and exclusively to reproduce the lowest register of audio in home theater and audiophile systems. Often using large drivers sealed in a square-shaped box, subwoofers originally were designed to augment the lackluster bass performance of floor-standing speakers. Getting subs to integrate with audiophile speakers in the early days was without question a challenge but, when done properly, the results added tremendous impact to the overall sound.

Today, subwoofers get a lot more respect, because in 5.1 surround, the "point 1" channel is the LFE or subwoofer channel, meaning that even with most good surround sound formats, ranging from Dolby Digital to DTS to today's best lossless formats like DTS Master Audio and Dolby True HD, your subwoofer is getting discrete audio mixed and mastered only for your woofer. The significance of this for audio and movies is that the mixing engineer can determine exactly where the most bass-demanding effects or instruments can go; the best place for them to go in the mix is the subwoofer. It allows your main speakers to do what they do best and do it more clearly, while not sucking the life out of your amplifiers, which are trying to power a gigantic explosion or the dynamics of a tympani drum. Most modern subwoofers today are powered with digital or powerful class AB amplifiers, allowing them to do their job of reproducing bass from around 140 Hertz to subsonic levels of below 20 Hertz.

Even for audiophiles, SACD is fading out of favor. Fewer labels are releasing new SACDs, and the labels that are still selling them are bringing out fewer discs. And of course for years now, DVD-Audio has been essentially extinct. What does the future hold for people who care about quality surround and stereo audio reproduction? The answer might very well be in the growing availability of Blu-ray players and discs.


Johannes Müller presented a very useful tutorial at the Audio Engineering Society's 126th Convention in Munich last May -- AES members can view a streamed version at http://www.aes.org/tutorials/. In this tutorial, Müller notes that one of the fatal flaws of the SACD and DVD-Audio formats is that special players are needed to take full advantage of the high-resolution content, so they never reached a mass market. However, every Blu-ray player can reproduce high-resolution surround audio through its HDMI output: 7.1 channels of 24-bit 192-kHz audio, losslessly coded and/or LPCM, depending on what the content owner decides to include on the disc. Some also have multichannel analog outputs and built-in converters for LPCM and lossless coding. Additionally, as the retail prices of Blu-ray players are dropping precipitously and more people are buying Blu-ray discs, the cost of mastering and pressing these discs is also dropping, so limited production runs of specialized content is becoming more economically feasible.


Müller is with msm-studios in Munich, who have developed a method of authoring Blu-ray audio discs that they call Pure Audio. These discs can be navigated in a similar manner to SACDs and CDs using a standard Blu-ray remote control; no video display is required. However, they include simple on-screen menus which can show track titles, images, and audio stream selection (losslessly compressed surround, LPCM surround, or stereo). If desired, video segments can be included and selected from the on-screen menus. Six Pure Audio discs have been released by Norwegian label 2L, packaged with hybrid SACDs of the same recordings. Four of these are available from Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y9hj3re; all six can be ordered from Norway: http://www.mamut.net/lindberglyd/shop/ (scroll down to the bottom of the listing to find the Pure Audio releases).


The Blu-ray Disc Association has recently announced the finalization of Profile 3.0, their audio-only standard. Unfortunately, a thorough search of the Web does not yield any details on what this standard includes, how it addresses backward compatibility with existing players, and how it handles navigational issues. This information is available only to licensees at present. Further, the Audio Engineering Society has established a standards project to develop a specification for navigating audio-only Blu-ray discs: http://www.aes.org/standards/meetings/init-projects/aes-x188-init.cfm . High-resolution surround audio on Blu-ray discs is not only technically feasible, it is commercially available.


But six releases from one small label are not enough to make a successful format. It is probably too much to expect that the major labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, EMI, and Warner will release surround recordings on Blu-ray. Their tepid efforts in SACD and DVD-Audio did not meet their sales expectations, so it's unlikely that we will see anything from them for the foreseeable future. Moreover, major labels have shown historically that they are nearly singularly focused on picking the lowest hanging fruit in the marketplace as opposed to working on adding value to the consumer thus their love affair with the Apple-owned world of CD-quality downloads in a world dominated by HD formats for television, movies, video games, computers and beyond. The independent labels who supported SACD may decide to release their catalogs on a format which, because of its large installed player base, would have a much better chance of commercial success than was possible with SACD. It wouldn't take a technological miracle for majors and indie labels alike to rerelease not only the DVD-Audio and SACD catalogs in 24/192 Blu-ray complete with copy protection and over 30 percent market penetration with current players. The majors have 24/192 copies of most of the catalog material which could provide a much needed move from a 25-plus year old Compact Disc to something that provides a more musical, more resolute, more added value for the consumer way to sell music. Many think that the mysterious details of Blu-ray profile 3.0 could inspire enthusiasm for music on Blu-ray. Audiophiles are holding their breath, crossing their fingers and sending out prayers that this is true.


About Garry Margolis
Garry Margolis is an audio/video marketing consultant; he has worked with Philips on SACD issues. He is Treasurer of the Audio Engineering Society. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of Philips or the AES.

Courtesy. Hometheaterreview.com

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Was R 20000.00

Now R14990.00