Page 1 of Yamaha AV-S77 Dolby Digital sound for £115.81 at QED

Dear all,

Has anyone bought and received a Yamaha AV-S77 Dolby Digital Speaker set from QED UK online ? The web address is www.qed-uk.com.

There seems to be a massive discount on this item as the street price is £299.00 normally.

Also does anyone know if its any good as it seems pretty good looking at the spec on the Yamaha UK website.

Very tempting at that price, but looking at it, the odd thing is that it seems to have the centre and front speakers integrated into one unit, so maybe you won`t get a decent front sound stage. I`d be a bit wary of the quoted high street price, as I`m sure others will reduce it. Still an interesting price for a "first system cheapy".

Hi there,

I went ahead and bought the system from QED and it was delivered much to my surprise in only 2 days. For the money I have to say it has done wonders for my home entertainment system. I only had Dolby Prologic before without a subwoofer so I am suitably impressed. The power of the system seems more than enough for my living room and even the combined centre/left/right speaker does a reasonable job without distortion. There are also enough digital sound processing options for my needs. So far I am not dissapointed at all. One thing to watch out for though is this unit can only be connected to your DVD Player via an optical digital Toslink conection and not every DVD player has this output. My DVD player has a digital coax output so I have had to invest in a digital coax to optical converter from Maplin. All in all though I`d say its a good "one box" low cost option into Dolby Digital/DTS sound for those on a budget.

Mark.

Do you get a good width of sound from that front box, or does it all sound like it`s coming from one place?

Is it possible to use existing r/l speakers leaving the box for only the centre channels?
Brett

2 answers to your questions.

1) Even though the centre and front left and right speakers are in 1 box the main unit is quite wide almost as wide as the speakers on a TV. I`m not an expert but it sounds ok to me with all-round wide sound. I haven`t listened to a really expensive separates system so I wouldn`t know. In the Yamaha user manual it says that the centre channel is virtualised into the 2 front and left channels. It seems to have some elctronic trickery to create the 3 front channels from 2 speakers and it sounds ok to me. There are also many DSP modes including a Digital Movie Theatre mode which expands the sound. The LFE channel I find particularly impressive on the subwoofer and more than enough for me.

2) In the Yamaha user manual it says that it sounds better with the TV speakers off and I agree it does. The sound quality is good enough for me and loud and clear enough. What I have been really impressed with is that it can decode dts sound as well as Dolby Digital. I watched Jurassic Park 3 in both Dolby Digital and dts and dts sounds much better to my ears. I don`t think with this unit you even need to use your TV speakers.

I hope this answers your questions. So far I am still impressed by this Yamaha set especially given the price at QED (£115.81). The sound beats hands down many of the cheaper 1 box DVD/Speaker systems I have listened to. Just make sure your DVD Player has a digital optical output or you will need a coaxial digital to optical digital converter.

Mark.

Hi again,

Just checked the WWW.QED-UK.COM website and this product has now been taken off. Perhaps they were selling them off or a price mistake hence the low price. Anyway I`m glad I got one !

Mark.

if your after a brilliant but cheap dts/dolby surround 5.1 package id get the yamaha tss-1..i got it from qed and i must say i was blown away by it i was gonna get the videologic at first but i tried out the yamaha as well and im glad i did the yamaha is briolliant the bass is unbelievable you get the amp 5 speakers and a subwoffer and it supports coxaixal input and optical input ive got my dvd player and my playstation 2 wired up to it and when you play games threw it they take on a new life you havent lived till youve played silent hill 2 on it with the sound cranked up and the lights off i gaurantee youll s*** yourself..lol..and also the tss1 is avaliable in 2 colurs the white and black.and its priced at £153 plus free postage look for it or call them up on www.qed-uk.com