The YSP-1400 is your entry-level ticket to Yamaha's world of digital sound projectors

Yamaha's sound bars or digital sound projectors are highly revered but pricey, but the new entry-level YSP-1400 wants to change all that. This is a one-piece unit with woofers built-in, so there's no subwoofer. Let's see if the baby in Yamaha's digital sound projector range can live up to its bigger siblings' reputation.

Wider Appeal

Sound bars have become increasingly popular and this can probably be attributed to two main reasons. One, the size of new homes in land scarce Singapore has been shrinking, making it either difficult or impractical to have multi-speaker setups. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the performance and capabilities of these sound bars have been steadily improving.

The YSP-1400 has a fuss-free no nonsense design and is available in piano black or white.

The YSP-1400 has a fuss-free no nonsense design and is available in piano black or white.

Yamaha has been carving for itself a solid reputation in the realm of sound bars and their YSP line of what they call "digital sound projectors" is highly revered. However, they are usually accompanied by high price tags, which puts them out of the range of most casual and mainstream users. Fortunately, Yamaha is keen to extend its customer and fan base and has released a new entry-level digital sound projector called the YSP-1400. Announced last year, but was only available locally this year, the new YSP-1400 is substantially more affordable than the rest of its brethren, Yamaha promises that it will deliver the same high quality surround sound experience that has come to define its award-winning YSP range of digital sound projectors. Let’s find out if this is true.

 

Design & Features

As the 'baby' of the YSP range, the YSP-1400 is slightly more compact as compared to the higher end models, measuring about a meter long and standing at slightly under 10cm high at its thickest point. It is available in black and white and has a glossy piano-like finish, which makes it a bit of a fingerprint and scratch magnet, so be sure to handle it carefully.

The 8 beam drivers are positioned dead center of the speaker.

The 8 beam drivers are positioned dead center of the speaker.

Size aside, the main difference between the YSP-1400 and its more costly siblings is the number of beam drivers, so-called because they project sound beams to bounce off walls to create a surround sound effect. The YSP-1400 has 8 beam drivers, each of them around 2.8cm in size. Just to give a sense of perspective, the YSP-2200 has 16, while the YSP-4300 and YSP-5100 have 22 and 40 respectively. Despite, the obvious discrepancy, Yamaha is adamant that the YSP-1400 will be able to live up to users’ high expectations. Beam drivers aside, the YSP-1400 also has dual 8.5cm woofers built into its stands. This negates an immediate need for a standalone subwoofer, which makes for easier and a more convenient setup.

The subwoofer is integrated into the stands and the strip running above is the IR repeater.

The subwoofer is integrated into the stands and the strip running above is the IR repeater.

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From left to right: digital optical (or TOSLINK), digital coaxial, RCA, 3.5mm jack and a subwoofer out jack.

From left to right: digital optical (or TOSLINK), digital coaxial, RCA, 3.5mm jack and a subwoofer out jack.

Since sound bars are often positioned directly in front of TVs, they often block the TV’s IR receiver. Fortunately, the YSP-1400 features a TV remote repeater on its back that repeats the signal and transmits it to the TV so that even if the speaker blocks the TV’s IR receiver, you can still use your TV remote.

Around the back, the YSP-1400 offers a relatively simple selection of inputs including a single digital optical jack, a single digital coaxial jack, analog RCA and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. The lack of a HDMI port is quite glaring, and the YSP-1400 should also have come with a USB port for easy playback of MP3 tracks. Bassheads will be pleased to know that the YSP-1400 also has a subwoofer output jack that can be used with an additional subwoofer unit.

LED indicators lets you know the status of the speakers.

LED indicators lets you know the status of the speakers.

The YSP-1400 itself does not have an LCD display but it does have a couple of LED status lights, which doubles up as volume indicators and other settings indicators. The YSP-1400 can also be controlled using your smartphone using Yamaha’s Home Theater Controller app, which is available for free on the App Store and Google Play. The app’s graphical user interface is more intuitive, especially if you want to customize the YSP-1400 to your listening position. The only downside is that it connects via Bluetooth and the YSP-1400 can only connect to a single device at a time via Bluetooth. This means that if you are using your smartphone or tablet to control the YSP-1400, you can only stream music from that same device. This can be problematic if most of your source material is on another device, like your notebook or desktop system.

You need the app to optimize and customize the YSP-1400's surround sound capabilities.

You need the app to optimize and customize the YSP-1400's surround sound capabilities.

Finally, the YSP-1400 has a further two technologies to enhance the listening experience and they are UniVolume and Clear Voice. UniVolume helps maintain the same volume levels regardless of your source and even channels and programs. Clear Voice boosts the volume of dialogue and narrations to make them more audible - this could be useful for news broadcasts and live sports.

MP3 Testing

To begin, we tested the Yamaha YSP-1400 using our MP3 test tracks. Unfortunately, the YSP-1400 does not have a USB port, so we could not just plug in our USB flash drive. However, the YSP-1400 does offer Bluetooth connectivity and so we streamed the music from our notebook to the YSP-1400 via Bluetooth to play our MP3 test tracks. The problem with this, however, is that streaming music over Bluetooth degrades audio quality as the tracks need to be compressed (of which bear in mind that MP3 itself is a compressed audio format). As a result, performance invariably suffers. Even so, this will be a good chance to evaluate the YSP-1400’s ability to handle music and also its Bluetooth streaming performance since that is how it's specced.

Pairing the Yamaha YSP-1400 to any Bluetooth-enabled device is a cinch. Simply press Bluetooth on the remote control and the speaker will go into pairing mode, thereafter just identify the YSP-1400 on your Bluetooth-enabled device and you are good to go.

We begin our testing with The Eagles’ Hotel California, a perennial audiophile favorite, and immediately a couple of things were clear. Despite the dual built-in subwoofers, the YSP-1400 has weak bass, as the bongo drums on the introduction sounded meek and lacked punch and urgency. In addition, while the YSP-1400 had a sufficiently wide soundstage, actual stereo separation was quite poor, and this was apparent during the dual guitar solos towards the end of the track. On the plus side, Henley’s vocals were clear and well textured, and the guitars sounded nice and bright.

Adele’s Melt My Heart to Stone sounded smooth and warm, but again, the YSP-1400 weak bass performance was evident as the song is punctuated with heavy drums. This prevented it from getting a higher score.

Elements of Life is fast trance track with heavy drums and beats and given the YSP-1400 disappointing bass performance, it was not surprising to see that it failed to garner a higher score. On the flip side, the speakers did exhibit good speed and the bass can be tweaked, but at the expense of a slightly more muddied sound.

Finally, Sail on Soothsayer is a fast instrumental track by the guitar virtuoso Buckethead and the YSP-1400 showed that it has a decent balance of dexterity and finesse to handle the fast and delicate phases of the track. In addition, the guitars sounded bright, clear and had a good sense of transparency.

Overall, the YSP-1400’s performance on our MP3 test tracks was good, vocals were dealt with admirably and it had a big yet clean and clear sound. Additionally, it has a warm sound signature that was quite richly textured. Even so, we felt that its bass lacked punch and that it also sounded a little hollow at times. On top of it that, it also exhibited poor stereo separation, despite having a wide soundstage. Additionally, it sounded a tad hollow at times and could do with a little more finesse in handling mids and highs.

MP3Testing
Score
Hotel California - The Eagles
7.5
Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele
8.0
Elements of Life -Tiesto
7.5
Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead
8.0

 

Blu-ray Testing

We tested the YSP-1400’s cinematic chops using the Blu-ray discs of Michael Jackson’s This Is It and the movie Superman Returns. While music is a primary component of This Is It, the show also features lots of dialogue, giving it a good mix. On the other hand, Superman Returns is your standard cinema fare and will give the YSP-1400 the chance to demonstrate its surround sound performance.

On This Is It, the vocals were once again very nicely handled as they were easily audible and clear. The YSP-1400 features Clear Voice, which raises the volume of dialogue and narrations, but we never once felt the need to enable it. On a whole, the YSP-1400 performance on This Is It was good, as the YSP-1400 seems to be best suited for pop songs and its big sound lends it well for more cinematic material. However, we did feel that bass was lacking, but that could be easily rectified by increasing the bass levels a tad - doing so added more punch and oomph to the viewing experience. But even so, the YSP-1400 did sound a little hollow again at times.

The YSP-1400 did not disappoint on Superman Returns as its big sound meant that it is best suited for watching movies, where it is more about the atmosphere and, for lack for a better word, 'feel'. Turning the DSP settings to Movie and turning the bass up a couple of notches yielded the best performance for us. Also important is to configure the YSP Position settings to optimize the surround sound performance. But even after doing so, we felt that the YSP-1400’s surround sound effects were very minimal and not ideal. If you were not listening out for it, we would not be surprised if you missed it. Furthermore, despite much tweaking, the two 'rear speakers' never did quite sound as if they were behind us - more like next to us. This is typical of most sound bars of this category or lesser, so it's not surprising.

Blu-ray Testing
Score
Michael Jackson's This Is It
7.5
Superman Returns
8.0

 

A Basic Sound Bar

All things considered, the YSP-1400 is a decent entry-level addition to Yamaha's revered line of digital sound projectors. Performance on a whole was decent and even though it was lacking oomph in the bass department, that could easily rectified by increasing the bass level by one or two steps. What is quite puzzling, however, is that despite its wide, enveloping sound, we found that stereo separation was quite poor and that its surround sound effects was faint, which is disappointing because Yamaha’s digital sound projectors are renown for their surround sound effects. Nevertheless, the YSP-1400 will not disappoint most mainstream non-discerning users, especially if it is going to be used primarily for movies.

At this juncture, we would like to emphasize and point out that the Yamaha YSP-1400 is just a single piece sound bar that's actually competing against multi-piece sound bars that are priced similarly or less. In its form, Yamaha has managed to incorporate dual woofers, which we applaud them for clever design and execution. This would mean the YSP-1400 can easily outperform most entry-level sound bars that are also single-piece units.

Even so, bass performance wasn't as powerful as one might hope for it to be because of its small 8.5cm drivers. This translates to having twin 3.5-inch woofers, which is not quite the same as a single large 6.5-inch woofer that you would find in standalone subwoofer units that are bundled in several sound bars starting from about $400. Furthermore, dedicated subwoofers have a larger enclosure to use to their advantage and house more powerful electronics to bring about the oomph required. Of course the audio performance and quality of these systems may not be in the same rank as a Yamaha digital sound projector, but we're just stating where the mismatch in expectations can occur with regards to bass performance of the YSP-1400 and its price point. It is nonetheless one of the more powerful sound bars without a dedicated subwoofer that will offer you a somewhat acceptable level of bass; and that is where you are paying a premium for its design and audio characteristics in a single-piece unit.

Performance aside, we also like the YSP-1400 for its fairly compact design, and at just under 10cm thick (that's including the feet, which double as the woofers), it also means that it should fit in front of most televisions easily. The IR repeater functionality is also a nice touch and ensures the sound bar is a good match for any TV. We also liked that it offers Bluetooth connectivity, but being able to pair with only a single device can be problematic especially if you want to also use the Home Theater controller app to control the speakers. Also, the YSP-1400 should really have offered HDMI and USB connectivity to make it versatile, but we understand that these options are not yet standard for entry-level sound bars in the market.

Yamaha's most affordable digital sound projector yet offers decent performance, but falls a little short of its predecessor's high reputation.

Yamaha's most affordable digital sound projector yet offers decent performance, but falls a little short of its predecessor's high reputation.

At S$799, the YSP-1400 is also substantially cheaper than anything else in Yamaha’s YSP lineup of digital sound projectors. The next step up, the YSP-2200 retails for more than double the amount - S$1699 to be exact - and even higher end models like the YSP-3300 and YSP-4300 are S$2339 and S$2799 respectively. It is also comparatively cheaper to older Yamaha models that we have reviewed like the YHT-S401, but then the latter features a standalone subwoofer/receiver unit and has better overall performance. Even so the YSP-1400 represents decent value for money for anyone who is looking for a decent single speaker solution to enhance their movie-watching experience.

All in all, the Yamaha YSP-1400 is well worth considering and is a good starting point for anyone who is looking to get well designed and integrated sound bar from a renowned audio specialist brand. As a single-piece sound bar, it's actually a very decent performer. However, just don’t expect the same type of surround sound performance of Yamaha’s more illustrious digital sound projector offerings.

Before we end the review, here's a note for bargain hunters: Look out for special offers that come up from either Yamaha or the consumer electronics store giants like Courts, Best Denki, Harvey Norman, and others. Depending on the sale season, you might even find the Yamaha YSP-1400 going for as low as just S$659, such as the current National Day offer. From our experience, these offers are not strictly limited to this period and they might recur occasionally. So stay sharp to get the right deal.

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