Satelliteguys Exclusive- Yambeka 5 Speaker HT
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My review of the Yambeka 7.1 (minus the sub) speaker set starts where else but at the beginning. I placed an order via Paypal and placed in the note section that I was a Satguys member and that I wanted the special pricing for the 7 speaker system. After the fact, I sent an e-mail directly to Yambeka asking if I could forego the shipping since I live relatively close to Columbus where the company is based. Why not ask? The worst case would be that they would say no and I would have to wait an extra 2-3 days...To my surprise, Brian from Yambeka e-mailed me back and said that he would work around my schedule to pick up the speakers anytime over the weekend! What a deal! So I called Brian and we spoke several times over the next day or so and set a time and place. My wife & I set out for Columbus and met up with Brian. Let me say what a pleasure it was to meet Brian face to face. He took the time out of his Sunday evening schedule to battle the cold weather here in Ohio just to service his customer. I can't tell you the last time that ANY company has EVER done this for me. Brian and his wife are genuine people and are to be commended for their dedication to their business and their customer. I don’t know about you, but the speakers could be less than sub-par and I would still give Yambeka my money just to support a company that has this level of service! Luckily that isn't the case as you will find out, so read on...
Well, after getting home and unloading these beasts, I had to make room for them.
The surround sound system I have been using up to this point is a JVC Home Theater In A Box (HTIB) that I got over 7 years ago. The system consisted of a JVC receiver, model RX - 778V, 5 bookshelf speakers and a wimpy (in my opinion) subwoofer. The speakers are rather small but have served me well over the last 7 years with no complaints from me. The receiver is fairly well made and gives out 100W per channel with lots of adjustments to make a custom sound setup. I complained enough about my wimpy sub that my parents bought me a Cerwin Vega 12" sub to replace the HTIB sub, which I still use.
I have been looking around the last 3 years whenever I saw a new receiver or speakers that caught my interest and had decided to upgrade once I found a system I liked. I knew I didn't want to get another HTIB but get separate components. I came across the Sony STR - DG800 7.1 surround receiver and liked the fact that it had HDMI switching so I ordered it and installed it. I immediately knew I needed 2 more speakers to get the full 7.1 effect, so I started shopping for surrounds and that's when I came upon this review of Yambeka.
I tell you most of the previous just to make sure you understand that I have been looking and doing test previews of alot of speakers and HT systems. We have a HT store in Columbus that is fairly close to work so I would go in at lunch time and preview different systems. I have pretty much narrowed my selection to Paradigm Studio series as they have a great sound. Currently, though I am not prepared to spend approx. $900 per speaker, but they are the mark that I shoot for in my HT speakers.
So, I disconnected the JVC bookshelf speakers from the Sony receiver and ran the extra wire for the extra 2 speakers and ripped open the Yambeka box. The speakers looked exactly as the pictures posted in the original review. Identical actually. However, here are some pictures of the ones I got just so you can compare them to the original ones posted earlier...
On the cosmetic side of things the speakers look great and I didn't find one blemish on them at all. Only negative I can really point out here is that most of the Yambeka emblems on the speaker grills are crooked. Small thing to me as I most likely will never use them because I like the way the silver and black look. (And they ARE silver. In the above pictures, they have taken on the gold coloring of the room...)
The Sony STR - DG800 comes with an auto configuration. While it isn't perfect, I like to start there and make the adjustments until I get the sound I like. So, with speakers installed, configuration set and tweaked I was ready to test these puppies out!
I have a set of DVD Demo disks so I pulled out the All in One Demo disk and popped it in the DVD player. For the First scene, I chose the Pod Race from Phantom Menace. I really wanted to give the 7.1 a work out! As a first impression let me say, WWWOOOOOOWWWWW! These speakers sounded great! The vocal isolation coming from the center speaker was almost perfect. I know alot of that depends on the receiver but the speaker has to reproduce the sound and this center speaker did a great job of it. I haven't found any harshness or brassiness out of this speaker yet.
As for the front speakers, after watching about 2 - 3 minutes of this scene, I backed up and disconnected my Cerwin Vega sub so I could hear just how much bass these guys were giving out. It might need to be said at this point that I set the receiver to large speakers so the speakers get the full spectrum of sound. I was fairly impressed (yet again) by the bass that these front speakers produce. While it wasn't room shaking bass, I thought that it would be the perfect solution to those late nights when my wife goes to bed and I still want to hear some bass. I get the bass, she gets the sleep. Perfect compromise!
So, while still listening to the Pod Race scene, I boosted the surrounds up from 0 level to +5 on each just so they would stand out for me and allow me to focus on them. Guys I can find no negative to tell you on this point. They took the boosting like champs and didn't even seem to sweat. The ending ceremony scene with the crowd of thousands and the parade of musicians and singers filled the room and I had the feeling of being in the middle of the that celebration.
A quick jump to the lobby scene of The Matrix and after plugging my sub back in, I let the bullets start flying. Again I noticed the vocal separation from the rest of the track. No muddy voices with these speakers! I have watched this scene 150+ times and I heard things I had never heard before. Well, maybe I should say I heard more of what I had always heard. More shells hitting the floor, more recoil from the guns, and more bodies hitting the floor. (Ha!)
On to the bedroom scene from The Haunting... While this scene focuses on the LFE, the reason why I chose to watch this scene is because there are voices of the children calling to Eleanor and I wanted to hear how these speakers handled the subtle side of things. This scene is fairly quiet at some spots and with the 7.1 the voices seemed to come out of the walls... very chilling effect!
Next up was a music scene from the Live DVD of Alison Krauss & Union Station. The "When You Say Nothing At All" scene has always rang with a distinct surround effect and with the Yambeka speakers it was the same just much clearer. I was worried that I would hear some over modulation during this scene as I always had with my other system, but it was no where to be found. Good all around.
So as you can expect at this point, I was just gushing with grins all over. Overall, these speakers have a nice sound and sometimes new speakers tend to be a little "in your face" with the sound, but I have not felt this so far.
The next chance I had to test out the speakers was during the super bowl. We had some friends and family over and so I decided to see if they had any comments about them. (With out my coaxing of course) Once everyone arrived and the group gathered into the HT room, several people noticed I had new speakers and so that started the conversation of what they thought. Aren't people so ready to give their opinions on stuff??? Not one person had a negative thing to say, even when I told them to give me some down sides. They gave me none. Most liked the look and the fact that the game was in surround sound. Again what a great effect at putting you into the action that crowd noise is...
I was wondering how the speakers would sound with the broadcast surround and they didn't disappoint.
So, the only thing left to test out was some actual music, and I have put the finishing touches on that this weekend. This review is getting long so I will just give the genre of music and a quick blurb of my thoughts for each:
Broadway Musical Soundtrack: Nice presence to these speakers. Strings are smooth, the vocals clear, & the bottom end supportive without overpowering.
Country Music: Not to brassy, I would say more of a mellow sound but still full
Bluegrass Music: Mandolins jump out, dobros sound good, violins are smooth
Southern Gospel: Much like country, full sound, I like the piano & also the electric bass
Movie Soundtracks: Roomy and spacious, since there are alot of different instruments you can make out each section if you listen close. Lower strings do get slightly muddy it seems
Acoustic Guitar: Nice and airy. The surrounds gave off the ambiance of a nice chamber room
Piano: The full spectrum of this instrument seems reproduced well
Rock: Reproduction of all the instruments is crystal clear. Not muddiness at which can happen in some cases when the speakers can not accurately reproduce the aggressive sound going on in this type of music
Electronic: Most of my electronic music is focused on the bass side of things, but for this testing I again disconnected my Cerwin Vega just so I could listen to the Yambeka speakers alone. The front left/right speakers produced hardly any of the sub frequencies (80 - 30Hz) I had to double check my amp to make sure I had the cross over set correctly. This is hardly a problem for me as I have the Vega's to take care of this...
Summary: The best thing about these speakers (aside from the price, customer service, etc...) is how clear these speakers reproduce the sound field. They are honestly transparent and do not attract attention to themselves except for how nice they sound. I have made purchases in the past for my Home Theater and have, after the fact, wondered why I ever paid money for things. Not with this purchase however! This may be the single most "bang for the buck" purchase I have made for my HT. Yambeka is tops in my book for every reason they should be. I honestly have no negatives to report. Speakers came in pristine condition, sound is top notch, Customer service is mind blowing, and I know if I have any questions, they are only a phone call away.
Way to go Yambeka!
Well, after getting home and unloading these beasts, I had to make room for them.
The surround sound system I have been using up to this point is a JVC Home Theater In A Box (HTIB) that I got over 7 years ago. The system consisted of a JVC receiver, model RX - 778V, 5 bookshelf speakers and a wimpy (in my opinion) subwoofer. The speakers are rather small but have served me well over the last 7 years with no complaints from me. The receiver is fairly well made and gives out 100W per channel with lots of adjustments to make a custom sound setup. I complained enough about my wimpy sub that my parents bought me a Cerwin Vega 12" sub to replace the HTIB sub, which I still use.
I have been looking around the last 3 years whenever I saw a new receiver or speakers that caught my interest and had decided to upgrade once I found a system I liked. I knew I didn't want to get another HTIB but get separate components. I came across the Sony STR - DG800 7.1 surround receiver and liked the fact that it had HDMI switching so I ordered it and installed it. I immediately knew I needed 2 more speakers to get the full 7.1 effect, so I started shopping for surrounds and that's when I came upon this review of Yambeka.
I tell you most of the previous just to make sure you understand that I have been looking and doing test previews of alot of speakers and HT systems. We have a HT store in Columbus that is fairly close to work so I would go in at lunch time and preview different systems. I have pretty much narrowed my selection to Paradigm Studio series as they have a great sound. Currently, though I am not prepared to spend approx. $900 per speaker, but they are the mark that I shoot for in my HT speakers.
So, I disconnected the JVC bookshelf speakers from the Sony receiver and ran the extra wire for the extra 2 speakers and ripped open the Yambeka box. The speakers looked exactly as the pictures posted in the original review. Identical actually. However, here are some pictures of the ones I got just so you can compare them to the original ones posted earlier...
On the cosmetic side of things the speakers look great and I didn't find one blemish on them at all. Only negative I can really point out here is that most of the Yambeka emblems on the speaker grills are crooked. Small thing to me as I most likely will never use them because I like the way the silver and black look. (And they ARE silver. In the above pictures, they have taken on the gold coloring of the room...)
The Sony STR - DG800 comes with an auto configuration. While it isn't perfect, I like to start there and make the adjustments until I get the sound I like. So, with speakers installed, configuration set and tweaked I was ready to test these puppies out!
I have a set of DVD Demo disks so I pulled out the All in One Demo disk and popped it in the DVD player. For the First scene, I chose the Pod Race from Phantom Menace. I really wanted to give the 7.1 a work out! As a first impression let me say, WWWOOOOOOWWWWW! These speakers sounded great! The vocal isolation coming from the center speaker was almost perfect. I know alot of that depends on the receiver but the speaker has to reproduce the sound and this center speaker did a great job of it. I haven't found any harshness or brassiness out of this speaker yet.
As for the front speakers, after watching about 2 - 3 minutes of this scene, I backed up and disconnected my Cerwin Vega sub so I could hear just how much bass these guys were giving out. It might need to be said at this point that I set the receiver to large speakers so the speakers get the full spectrum of sound. I was fairly impressed (yet again) by the bass that these front speakers produce. While it wasn't room shaking bass, I thought that it would be the perfect solution to those late nights when my wife goes to bed and I still want to hear some bass. I get the bass, she gets the sleep. Perfect compromise!
So, while still listening to the Pod Race scene, I boosted the surrounds up from 0 level to +5 on each just so they would stand out for me and allow me to focus on them. Guys I can find no negative to tell you on this point. They took the boosting like champs and didn't even seem to sweat. The ending ceremony scene with the crowd of thousands and the parade of musicians and singers filled the room and I had the feeling of being in the middle of the that celebration.
A quick jump to the lobby scene of The Matrix and after plugging my sub back in, I let the bullets start flying. Again I noticed the vocal separation from the rest of the track. No muddy voices with these speakers! I have watched this scene 150+ times and I heard things I had never heard before. Well, maybe I should say I heard more of what I had always heard. More shells hitting the floor, more recoil from the guns, and more bodies hitting the floor. (Ha!)
On to the bedroom scene from The Haunting... While this scene focuses on the LFE, the reason why I chose to watch this scene is because there are voices of the children calling to Eleanor and I wanted to hear how these speakers handled the subtle side of things. This scene is fairly quiet at some spots and with the 7.1 the voices seemed to come out of the walls... very chilling effect!
Next up was a music scene from the Live DVD of Alison Krauss & Union Station. The "When You Say Nothing At All" scene has always rang with a distinct surround effect and with the Yambeka speakers it was the same just much clearer. I was worried that I would hear some over modulation during this scene as I always had with my other system, but it was no where to be found. Good all around.
So as you can expect at this point, I was just gushing with grins all over. Overall, these speakers have a nice sound and sometimes new speakers tend to be a little "in your face" with the sound, but I have not felt this so far.
The next chance I had to test out the speakers was during the super bowl. We had some friends and family over and so I decided to see if they had any comments about them. (With out my coaxing of course) Once everyone arrived and the group gathered into the HT room, several people noticed I had new speakers and so that started the conversation of what they thought. Aren't people so ready to give their opinions on stuff??? Not one person had a negative thing to say, even when I told them to give me some down sides. They gave me none. Most liked the look and the fact that the game was in surround sound. Again what a great effect at putting you into the action that crowd noise is...
I was wondering how the speakers would sound with the broadcast surround and they didn't disappoint.
So, the only thing left to test out was some actual music, and I have put the finishing touches on that this weekend. This review is getting long so I will just give the genre of music and a quick blurb of my thoughts for each:
Broadway Musical Soundtrack: Nice presence to these speakers. Strings are smooth, the vocals clear, & the bottom end supportive without overpowering.
Country Music: Not to brassy, I would say more of a mellow sound but still full
Bluegrass Music: Mandolins jump out, dobros sound good, violins are smooth
Southern Gospel: Much like country, full sound, I like the piano & also the electric bass
Movie Soundtracks: Roomy and spacious, since there are alot of different instruments you can make out each section if you listen close. Lower strings do get slightly muddy it seems
Acoustic Guitar: Nice and airy. The surrounds gave off the ambiance of a nice chamber room
Piano: The full spectrum of this instrument seems reproduced well
Rock: Reproduction of all the instruments is crystal clear. Not muddiness at which can happen in some cases when the speakers can not accurately reproduce the aggressive sound going on in this type of music
Electronic: Most of my electronic music is focused on the bass side of things, but for this testing I again disconnected my Cerwin Vega just so I could listen to the Yambeka speakers alone. The front left/right speakers produced hardly any of the sub frequencies (80 - 30Hz) I had to double check my amp to make sure I had the cross over set correctly. This is hardly a problem for me as I have the Vega's to take care of this...
Summary: The best thing about these speakers (aside from the price, customer service, etc...) is how clear these speakers reproduce the sound field. They are honestly transparent and do not attract attention to themselves except for how nice they sound. I have made purchases in the past for my Home Theater and have, after the fact, wondered why I ever paid money for things. Not with this purchase however! This may be the single most "bang for the buck" purchase I have made for my HT. Yambeka is tops in my book for every reason they should be. I honestly have no negatives to report. Speakers came in pristine condition, sound is top notch, Customer service is mind blowing, and I know if I have any questions, they are only a phone call away.
Way to go Yambeka!
i agree...i got the email saying you posted it, but it wasn't on the website...oh well, i read it in my email box and i loved it!
Sorry about that, we have a spam, protection filter in place and it hides messages with peoples posts who have 5 of less posts and if it has $'s in it. 
Because your review had a few $'s in it the system submitted it to the staff for approval, which of course we approved it.
Wow what a review! I really cant wait to hook mine up!
Because your review had a few $'s in it the system submitted it to the staff for approval, which of course we approved it.
Wow what a review! I really cant wait to hook mine up!
So, should I repost it here to put it on the website or would it do that again? Is there a size restriction to the posts? as it is kind big even without the pics.
I don't know anything about e-mails. I don't get them when a post is made to the forum here. Maybe I should do that.
I don't know anything about e-mails. I don't get them when a post is made to the forum here. Maybe I should do that.
VERY nice review!!
I agree with your review. I've noticed a deeper sound for the bass, and I've also noticed a cleaner sound.
I really did a good test on mine. I rattled our living room windows which is interesting since they are double-paned.
I agree with your review. I've noticed a deeper sound for the bass, and I've also noticed a cleaner sound.
I really did a good test on mine. I rattled our living room windows which is interesting since they are double-paned.
sa91899, thanks for the review. I've been following this thread off and on for the past month looking for a little more substance than the first review.
I was emailed this thread by Brian Wheeler last month as a response to an email exchange we had in July of 06. Yambeka was advertising quite heavily on Craigslist about the time that I was shopping for some good HT speakers. Seeing a company like this, with no product reviews at all, basically spamming a online market forum like Craigslist I responded with the only conclusion I could come up with: that these guys were running a "white bus" scam.
After reading about the customer service shown in this thread, I am ready to say that I was wrong, and that Yambeka will have a PayPal order within the next 5 minutes.
Jeff
I was emailed this thread by Brian Wheeler last month as a response to an email exchange we had in July of 06. Yambeka was advertising quite heavily on Craigslist about the time that I was shopping for some good HT speakers. Seeing a company like this, with no product reviews at all, basically spamming a online market forum like Craigslist I responded with the only conclusion I could come up with: that these guys were running a "white bus" scam.
After reading about the customer service shown in this thread, I am ready to say that I was wrong, and that Yambeka will have a PayPal order within the next 5 minutes.
Jeff
