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A Satelliteguys Exclusive!
Yambeka 5 Speaker Home Theater System- First Look
The new Budget Champion!
I'm upset. No, I'm mad. No, I'm pissed! Why? I'll get to that later. Those of you that know me for the last six years as a tech reviewer know that I don't pull any punches, I'll tell it like it is, (see my Humax review) and I'm a man of my word. (Witness the recent bet that I lost!) I found a speaker company in that hotbed of audio technology, Columbus Ohio, (HA!) named Yambeka Audio.
Yambeka is a company established in 2004 that specialises in budget home theater speakers, and does it in spades.
The speaker system is comprised of a center, 2 towers, and 2 satellites. They are all black and are manufacturered in the same plant as some of Polk and Fluance's speakers.
The specifications are as follows.
The front speakers are wooden towers and features a 3-way bass reflex system: 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 13cm (5.25") driver x 2 and 20cm (8") woofer x 8 ohms impedance 120W RMS input; maximum input power is 240W 89db + 2dB sensitivity 40Hz-20kHz frequency response 3kHz crossover frequency.
Centre Speaker features a two-way bass reflex design. Magnetically shielded for use near your TV. 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 10cm (4") x 2, Driver 10cm (4") x 2 8 ohms impedance 100W RMS input power; maximum 200W input power 87dB + 2dB sensitivity 50Hz - 20kHz frequency response 3.5kHz crossover frequency.
The rear surround speakers are 2-way bass reflex speakers 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 10cm (4") driver x 1 8 ohms impedance 80W RMS input power; maximum input power is 160W 88dB + 2dB sensitivity 58Hz-20kHz frequency response 4kHz crossover frequency.
Finish is Black Ash, and the speakers come with a simple yet effective setup guide in english, no chinglish writing anywhere! It also includes the warranty coverage.
The speaker connections on the front speakers are standard posts while the connections on the center and rears are the cheaper clip style.
These are similar (but better specs) to the Fluance AV-HTB+ speaker system that retails for $199 + shipping.
Following are pictures.
The box they come in.
The box opened
The Center Channel views
The Center
Minus Grill
Rear View
The Tower Views
Tower view so you can see the side firing 8" Woofer
Tower without Grill
I dropped the camera!
Rear View
The Surround views
Without Grill
Rear View
The test system consists of Energy E:xl26 Fronts, Energy AC100 Center, and Energy E:xl-R surrounds driven by an Onkyo TX-DS989 Ver.2 THX Ultra 2 Surround receiver, Panasonic CP-72 DVD/DVD-A player, and a 15 inch powered subwoofer.
For the initial look I invited my friend who is a music teacher over and asked her to bring some reference material. She played in the OSU band in the 80's and traveled to Japan to play a symphony concert in the 80's. The music we listened to was a recording from the seesion in Japan and the Beatles Abby Road CD.
First we listened to the Energy reference setup first. When prompted about the performance she stated that it was very nice and realistic. We then changed over to the Yambeka speakers and things got interesting!
The theater room is 30'x15', or 450 sq ft. It's a sizable room. Her first comments were, "Wow, these really fill the room"! The highs were crisp and the mids weren't muddy at all.
She kept on about the wide soundstage and how the Yambeka's really opened up the sound. She commented on how she could easily discern all the instruments and how clear it was. They also sounded much "brighter" than the energys. We then went on to movies, watching scenes from The Fifth Element and Star Wars IV A New Hope.
On The Fifth Element the Diva sounded fantastic, and the scene where Bruce Willis emerges from the theater shooting up everything in sight sounded very good. Star Wars John Williams score was also impressive, although you could tell it was a 30 yr old analog recording that hes been digitally remastered. We then watched the same scenes with out the sub. To borrow a line from Borat- The highs and mids had sexy curves, the lows, not so much! While the lows were respectable and enough for someone without a sub, the system really benefits from the addition of a subwoofer, the 8" woofers nonwithstanding.
Remember the beginning where I said I was pissed? That's because I thought the Energy speakers would blow the Yambekas away. That didn't happen! Not only did the Yambekas do more than hold a candle to the Energy speakers, they compared favoribly in a couple of settings! The hell of it is that the Yambeka speakers are $159 for the set! Yes, One Hundred and Fifty Nine Dollars! Shipping in the contiguous 48 states is $35. (They will deliver then to your door in Columbus for $159!!) For $184 you get a set of speakers that will blow away many, many, more expensive speakers. You can buy 5 sets of these for the price of 1 set of totally inferior set of Bose speakers.
Thinking of a HTIB? Forget it! These will blow away any HTIB I've ever heard.
Yambeka includes a 5 year warranty on all the internals and a 2 year warranty on the cabinets. You must keep the original packaging (that's what attics are for) and receipt. With the mind blowingly low price, if you need warranty service the return shipping is on you.
Yambeka's website is down for redesign but should be back up within the week. In the mean time you may contact Yambeka at 614-312-9239.
What should you expect from a $159 set of Home Theater Speakers, not much you say? Well The Yambeka speakers are one hell of a value, the best bang for your buck I've ever heard.
Therefore I am crowning the Yambeka home theater speakers THE KING OF BUDGET HOME THEATER SPEAKERS! Even without a sub you have more than an entry level set, add a sub and you are securely in the mid-range HT market.
I give Yambeka 5 of 5 Satellite Dishes for giving you $700 worth of performance for less than $184 shipped!
Digital Dude out for now!
Yambeka 5 Speaker Home Theater System- First Look
The new Budget Champion!
I'm upset. No, I'm mad. No, I'm pissed! Why? I'll get to that later. Those of you that know me for the last six years as a tech reviewer know that I don't pull any punches, I'll tell it like it is, (see my Humax review) and I'm a man of my word. (Witness the recent bet that I lost!) I found a speaker company in that hotbed of audio technology, Columbus Ohio, (HA!) named Yambeka Audio.
Yambeka is a company established in 2004 that specialises in budget home theater speakers, and does it in spades.
The speaker system is comprised of a center, 2 towers, and 2 satellites. They are all black and are manufacturered in the same plant as some of Polk and Fluance's speakers.
The specifications are as follows.
The front speakers are wooden towers and features a 3-way bass reflex system: 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 13cm (5.25") driver x 2 and 20cm (8") woofer x 8 ohms impedance 120W RMS input; maximum input power is 240W 89db + 2dB sensitivity 40Hz-20kHz frequency response 3kHz crossover frequency.
Centre Speaker features a two-way bass reflex design. Magnetically shielded for use near your TV. 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 10cm (4") x 2, Driver 10cm (4") x 2 8 ohms impedance 100W RMS input power; maximum 200W input power 87dB + 2dB sensitivity 50Hz - 20kHz frequency response 3.5kHz crossover frequency.
The rear surround speakers are 2-way bass reflex speakers 2.5cm (1") tweeter, 10cm (4") driver x 1 8 ohms impedance 80W RMS input power; maximum input power is 160W 88dB + 2dB sensitivity 58Hz-20kHz frequency response 4kHz crossover frequency.
Finish is Black Ash, and the speakers come with a simple yet effective setup guide in english, no chinglish writing anywhere! It also includes the warranty coverage.
The speaker connections on the front speakers are standard posts while the connections on the center and rears are the cheaper clip style.
These are similar (but better specs) to the Fluance AV-HTB+ speaker system that retails for $199 + shipping.
Following are pictures.
The box they come in.
The box opened
The Center Channel views
The Center
Minus Grill
Rear View
The Tower Views
Tower view so you can see the side firing 8" Woofer
Tower without Grill
I dropped the camera!
Rear View
The Surround views
Without Grill
Rear View
The test system consists of Energy E:xl26 Fronts, Energy AC100 Center, and Energy E:xl-R surrounds driven by an Onkyo TX-DS989 Ver.2 THX Ultra 2 Surround receiver, Panasonic CP-72 DVD/DVD-A player, and a 15 inch powered subwoofer.
For the initial look I invited my friend who is a music teacher over and asked her to bring some reference material. She played in the OSU band in the 80's and traveled to Japan to play a symphony concert in the 80's. The music we listened to was a recording from the seesion in Japan and the Beatles Abby Road CD.
First we listened to the Energy reference setup first. When prompted about the performance she stated that it was very nice and realistic. We then changed over to the Yambeka speakers and things got interesting!
The theater room is 30'x15', or 450 sq ft. It's a sizable room. Her first comments were, "Wow, these really fill the room"! The highs were crisp and the mids weren't muddy at all.
She kept on about the wide soundstage and how the Yambeka's really opened up the sound. She commented on how she could easily discern all the instruments and how clear it was. They also sounded much "brighter" than the energys. We then went on to movies, watching scenes from The Fifth Element and Star Wars IV A New Hope.
On The Fifth Element the Diva sounded fantastic, and the scene where Bruce Willis emerges from the theater shooting up everything in sight sounded very good. Star Wars John Williams score was also impressive, although you could tell it was a 30 yr old analog recording that hes been digitally remastered. We then watched the same scenes with out the sub. To borrow a line from Borat- The highs and mids had sexy curves, the lows, not so much! While the lows were respectable and enough for someone without a sub, the system really benefits from the addition of a subwoofer, the 8" woofers nonwithstanding.
Remember the beginning where I said I was pissed? That's because I thought the Energy speakers would blow the Yambekas away. That didn't happen! Not only did the Yambekas do more than hold a candle to the Energy speakers, they compared favoribly in a couple of settings! The hell of it is that the Yambeka speakers are $159 for the set! Yes, One Hundred and Fifty Nine Dollars! Shipping in the contiguous 48 states is $35. (They will deliver then to your door in Columbus for $159!!) For $184 you get a set of speakers that will blow away many, many, more expensive speakers. You can buy 5 sets of these for the price of 1 set of totally inferior set of Bose speakers.
Thinking of a HTIB? Forget it! These will blow away any HTIB I've ever heard.
Yambeka includes a 5 year warranty on all the internals and a 2 year warranty on the cabinets. You must keep the original packaging (that's what attics are for) and receipt. With the mind blowingly low price, if you need warranty service the return shipping is on you.
Yambeka's website is down for redesign but should be back up within the week. In the mean time you may contact Yambeka at 614-312-9239.
What should you expect from a $159 set of Home Theater Speakers, not much you say? Well The Yambeka speakers are one hell of a value, the best bang for your buck I've ever heard.
Therefore I am crowning the Yambeka home theater speakers THE KING OF BUDGET HOME THEATER SPEAKERS! Even without a sub you have more than an entry level set, add a sub and you are securely in the mid-range HT market.
I give Yambeka 5 of 5 Satellite Dishes for giving you $700 worth of performance for less than $184 shipped!
Digital Dude out for now!
309 Replies
·
76138 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68733 Replies
·
2684091 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Over the past year I have been tracking the changes on Western Arc. The past 3 months have had a lot of changes that I posted in the other MPEG2 Western Arc shutdown thread. Now that 129 is (basically) out of commission, here is where Western Arc stands. This is just a national channel list, (no local channels) based off what I can see and what others have contributed. Thanks to everyone who has helped me come up with the locations of some of the channels – I would try and list all of you out, but I know I would forget someone! As has been suggested in other parts of the forum, it would be great to collect the spotbeam data for those who could contribute!
A couple of pieces of info:
When I talk about number of channels on a transponder, all my numbers are unique channels – for example, channel 101 and 199 are the same channel mapped to two different numbers, but in terms of space, only takes up 1 channel worth of bandwidth on the transponder.
Finally, I have to give Dish a ton of credit. When it was 110/119/129, Dish had 82 transponders they were using – it took a lot to get it down to 50 transponders and figure out where all the pieces were going to go. What are the things they did to get there? Here are the things I saw:
A couple of pieces of info:
- Out of the 64 transponders between 110/119, there are currently 50 transponders that Dish is licensed to use. 22 are Spotbeams, 28 are ConUS transponders (14 transponders are licensed to DirecTV and Dish doesn't have access to them)
- Those 28 ConUS transponders are divided as follows:
- 10 are dedicated to National HD channels (ESPN, CNN, Disney Channel, etc). Dish is maxing out at 16 HD channels per transponder (note – in an earlier post I said there was one transponder with 17 HD channels, that was an error on my part. When I double checked my listings, one channel changed transponders). Before the transition, there was a maximum of 14 HD channels per transponder.
- 1 transponder is dedicated to adult content
- 2 are a mixture HD PPV Movies/4k channels
- 3 are set aside for HD Sports channels that are only on for live games (NBA League Pass, the PAC 12 alternate channels, some PPV events, etc); 3 SD PPV Sports Channels are there as well.
- 7 are for SD and/or music channels. Dish is maxing out at 26 SD channels per transponder thus far on the SD transponders.
- 5 transponders on 110 I have no channels listed but Dish operates. (they are labeled as ConUS on my chart below) There are other things that could be on those transponders, like RV Distant Networks, internal testing channels, etc, that I can't see. They might be able to be used for additional content, but I am not sure exactly what is on those transponders.
When I talk about number of channels on a transponder, all my numbers are unique channels – for example, channel 101 and 199 are the same channel mapped to two different numbers, but in terms of space, only takes up 1 channel worth of bandwidth on the transponder.
Finally, I have to give Dish a ton of credit. When it was 110/119/129, Dish had 82 transponders they were using – it took a lot to get it down to 50 transponders and figure out where all the pieces were going to go. What are the things they did to get there? Here are the things I saw:
- During this migration from 129, Dish converted 7 ConUS transponders on 119 into Spotbeams – that is how they ended up fitting on all the HD locals that used to be on 129. (for those interested, TP 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 are the ones that used to be ConUS on 119 that are now Spotbeam)
- Removed almost all SD duplicate channels that are offered in HD
- Converted remaining SD channels from MPEG2 to MPEG4
- There are also 2 subtle things that changed from the HD channel perspective
- At the beginning of the transition, Dish decreased the number of PPV Movie channels – prior to this transition the PPV channels HD PPV movies were 502-522; now they are 502-517.
- At the beginning of April when MLB, NBA, and NHL regular seasons were all going on at the same time and this transition began, there were a ton of games "joined in progress" for the HD feeds. That wasn't common since the days before the full time HD RSN's. The reason for that was prior to the transition, Dish had 4 transponders set aside for HD Sports – 2 transponders was the bandwidth set aside from the HD RSN's before Dish dropped the RSN's, then 2 transponders were for alternate channels. Now we are down to 3 transponders for HD sports.
250 Replies
·
65989 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsr0owJQjdM
Direct YouTube Link - Whiskey Pick: Sideshow Lincoln Straight Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsr0owJQjdM
Direct YouTube Link - Whiskey Pick: Sideshow Lincoln Straight Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
·
13 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nexbqNPK4g
Direct YouTube Link - Siri Recap & Live Reward Come to watchOS Beta
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nexbqNPK4g
Direct YouTube Link - Siri Recap & Live Reward Come to watchOS Beta
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
·
14 views
Lon.TV
Time for another AWESOME video from Lon Seidman of LON.TV!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnP5FbLWFXM
Direct YouTube Link - Here's How I Code My Own Apps with AI Tools
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnP5FbLWFXM
Direct YouTube Link - Here's How I Code My Own Apps with AI Tools
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
0 Replies
·
12 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Not sure saving $24/year is worth it unless you're a hardcore Philo user. I'll stick with monthly.
0 Replies
·
31 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Cheap, just the battery. Working or not.
Anybody got anything they'd just as soon get rid of? They look like this:
Anybody got anything they'd just as soon get rid of? They look like this:
1 Replies
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65 views
iJustine
Time for another AWESOME video from iJustine!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CQKExcti5Og
Direct YouTube Link - Buying a Car Online: Truth or Lie?
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CQKExcti5Og
Direct YouTube Link - Buying a Car Online: Truth or Lie?
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
0 Replies
·
20 views
I have Dish with Hopper3. I choose to get local channels OTA and had a "guide list" established at my previous home. Having moved a few miles away, I wanted to update the list by appending a couple new stations via a rescan. As many would know, some stations come in with the UHF/VHF antenna aimed in one direction, while others come in better with a different direction.
Unfortunately, when a scan is done (bringing in 25-30 stations for that particular antenna aim), the dialog screen does not present the established guide list; it presents an empty field to the right that the scanned stations may be selected one by one and added to the empty guide. But because of antenna aim, some stations originally saved are missing, and would have to be retrieved with a different antenna aim. But as I explain, if a 2nd scan is done with a different antenna aim, the stations saved from the first scan are lost.
It troubles me that Dish didn't develop software that would allow a user to simply append only 1 or 2 channels to the established list.
Any thought on this? Has anyone experienced this or heard of this from others?
Unfortunately, when a scan is done (bringing in 25-30 stations for that particular antenna aim), the dialog screen does not present the established guide list; it presents an empty field to the right that the scanned stations may be selected one by one and added to the empty guide. But because of antenna aim, some stations originally saved are missing, and would have to be retrieved with a different antenna aim. But as I explain, if a 2nd scan is done with a different antenna aim, the stations saved from the first scan are lost.
It troubles me that Dish didn't develop software that would allow a user to simply append only 1 or 2 channels to the established list.
Any thought on this? Has anyone experienced this or heard of this from others?
8 Replies
·
331 views
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
According to this article on The Verge, Videostrong Technologies based in Shenzen, China, placed a backdoor into 1.3 million of their devices and used this to deploy a botnet:
www.theverge.com
One of Google’s Android partners turned 1.3 million set-top boxes into a botnet
A manufacturer intentionally hijacked its Android TV devices.
www.theverge.com
8 Replies
·
154 views
'I bought these super cheap off-brand Android devices and got burned, now I'll never buy name brand stuff!' 
Someone's, need to neuter the red China's junk they keeps spewing out... 
How about they just neuter China ...Someone's, need to neuter the red China's junk they keeps spewing out...
Only, If they can make a coup on the Chinese government! 
