Talk:Yamaha DSP-1

Yamaha's later offerings did not include the variety of settings and options the DSP1 had. I personally find myself using about 3 different settings, and I notice that Yamaha's surround sound and theatre receivers currently have those same settings (or their analogs), so if I were to upgrade, I wouldn't miss much. Still, the DSP-1 is a pretty amazing device, and probably brought surround sound back in vogue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.242.50.237 (talk • contribs)

Although I experimented with many of the parameters, I also used only a few. It was the unit that convinced me that surround sound had a future in mid to high end audio. And it was very unlike the subequent surround sound processing that came after (such as Dolby Surround). Instead of simply decoding a precoded recording, the DSP took a standard signal and faithfully recreated the echo and reverb qualities of various real world environments and and a few artificial ones. It then allowed the user to increase or decrease select parameters of each environment.

However, it suffered -like most units of its day- from poor digital filtering on the Digital-to-analog converter leaving most digital audio components of the time with a high pitched buzzing noise. At the time of its engineering, digital sound was still in its infancy. It was still not widely accepted yet - especially by audiophiles who generally considered the frequency range of digital content inferior to that of analogue as well as the (then) poor state of digital circuitry as substandard when compared to analogue. This buzzing was worse in some modes than in others and even made some settings intolerable. I bought one of the first units available in 1986 so I don't know when they resolved that problem. I did get to hear the DSP-2 and the buzz was notably absent - but so were a number of the settings and user configurable parameters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.130.69.53 (talk) 14:05, 20 November 2007 (UTC)