Satelliteguys Exclusive- Yambeka 5 Speaker HT
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So far, I'm quite impressed. It seems as though they addressed all of the concerns I've read here with the previous models and then some.
Not a single crooked emblem, flawless craftsmanship, all tip top.
The glossy piano finish on the mains is smoother and prettier than my Event ASP8s!
I'm gonna really put them thru their paces and I won't go easy on them.
Not a single crooked emblem, flawless craftsmanship, all tip top.
The glossy piano finish on the mains is smoother and prettier than my Event ASP8s!
I'm gonna really put them thru their paces and I won't go easy on them.
It all sounds impossible to me. Has anyone ripped one apart and looked at the construction? the wiring etc? Run side by side tests with say Klipsch? or some other high quality speakers?
everyone says they are great and all that, yet nobody can seem to get an impartial review of these. Most people want details on these speakers yet few are actually offering them.
A few things many of use would like to know:
Detailed Pics with insides
Receiver / Amp you are using
Room size and how well the sound fills it
Can you bi-amp the fronts
Weight of each
Are the towers set up for carpet spikes?
Finish quality (which seems to be very good from the few people who have responded)
If we could get this info, that would get the ball rolling.
thanks
A few things many of use would like to know:
Detailed Pics with insides
Receiver / Amp you are using
Room size and how well the sound fills it
Can you bi-amp the fronts
Weight of each
Are the towers set up for carpet spikes?
Finish quality (which seems to be very good from the few people who have responded)
If we could get this info, that would get the ball rolling.
thanks
I will be doing a review once I have used them for a little while, and it will be impartial since I knew nothing about these speakers before I was asked to review them.
Brian went thru a lot of trouble to get a fair unbiased review from me and I plan to give it to him. But I can't give him a fair review until I've really gotten acquainted with this product. These speakers are still very new and it will take a bit of time until folks start buying them and writing reviews.
A few things many of use would like to know:
Detailed Pics with insides
I have been taking pictures of everything so far and will include them with the review package to Brian. The boxes do not come apart but I can take the cones out and send that to Brian. This unbiased review is a service I am giving Brian for him to use as he choses but I'll throw up a few soon.
Receiver / Amp you are using
Sherwood RD-7502 7.1
Room size and how well the sound fills it.
17 x 13 x 9 acoustically treated recording studio control room.
Sounds great form everywhere in the room
Weight of each.
The boxes they came in say:
Floors = 26.9 lbs each
4 surrounds, Center = 24.6 total
But I don't have a scale so I can't tell you from experience.
Are the towers set up for carpet spikes?
Not sure, don't use them.
Finish quality (which seems to be very good from the few people who have responded) Simply beautiful. They don't call it piano finish for nothing.
Hope this helps.
Brian went thru a lot of trouble to get a fair unbiased review from me and I plan to give it to him. But I can't give him a fair review until I've really gotten acquainted with this product. These speakers are still very new and it will take a bit of time until folks start buying them and writing reviews.
A few things many of use would like to know:
Detailed Pics with insides
I have been taking pictures of everything so far and will include them with the review package to Brian. The boxes do not come apart but I can take the cones out and send that to Brian. This unbiased review is a service I am giving Brian for him to use as he choses but I'll throw up a few soon.
Receiver / Amp you are using
Sherwood RD-7502 7.1
Room size and how well the sound fills it.
17 x 13 x 9 acoustically treated recording studio control room.
Sounds great form everywhere in the room
Weight of each.
The boxes they came in say:
Floors = 26.9 lbs each
4 surrounds, Center = 24.6 total
But I don't have a scale so I can't tell you from experience.
Are the towers set up for carpet spikes?
Not sure, don't use them.
Finish quality (which seems to be very good from the few people who have responded) Simply beautiful. They don't call it piano finish for nothing.
Hope this helps.
Where have you seen a "partial" review? I've been slammed due to the fact that I'm on the board of our local Charity and we were scrambling like mad to take care of families.
Have you read any of my other reviews?
I will call sh*t when something is sh*t. (See my Humax review)
Maybe Ill have time this weekend to do the write-up. If you read the review of the 5.0 system you will see the review equipment used, Ramy heard them in the same room driven by the same components as the 5.0 system.
Bottom line is they are incredible for the price. Are they equal to Klipsch? I upgraded from Klipsch to Energy's and while they aren't quite Klipsch or Energy's they're one hell of a good speaker. From a helluva good small company that has shown time and time again that they care about their customers and their product.
Yeah they sounded pretty good for the price that's for sure. I went back to my original center channel, because the one in this group just doesn't have the same clarity as my Cerwin Vega. All the rest though are great.
My impartial review is - they sound great for the price. Do they rival my Paradigm setup? No! But I paid a bit more for my Paradigms...
I have them hooked up to a Yamaha receiver in our living room - we do little more than watch TV in that room, so I can't say that I push them very hard. But for $160, I couldn't be happier.
Yambeka 7.0 speaker Review
ORIGINAL VERSION LOCATED AT Yambeka Audio 7.0 Reveiw - Home Theater Systems - Electronics and Forum - HomeTheaterShack
Review by: Matthew Marcil
Product: Yambeka 7.0 speaker system
Experience: Audio Engineer (Tweek Sound and Mastering, WKXL1450 Concord NH Radio), audio engineering instructor (Audio Tools digital audio engineering course), acoustic consultant (Marcil Acoustic Consulting and design)
Gear used: Sherwood 7.1 Receiver, Akai DPS 24 – 2.0, - 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound digital console.
Room: acoustically treated and balanced 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, and 7.1 production studio control room.
Price: 7.0 System=$359.00 Shipped
Price: 5.0 System=$299.00 Shipped
First Impressions
The first impression that a set of speakers makes is often in their appearance.
One can’t help but judge (at least a little) a speaker’s ability to produce lush and big sound, by how lush and big they look.
However, a real home theater and audio enthusiast will always prefer sound quality over aesthetics. Have no fear; the new 5.0 and 7.0 line of speakers from Yambeka Audio has both in abundance. We’ll get into both sound and appearance shortly, but first thing’s first.
Company Background
yambekaaudio.com
Yambeka, means, “Blessed” in the language of Oshiwambo, spoken in the home country of company co-owner, Helvi Itenge, Namibia.
Itenge and her husband, Brian Wheeler of Cleveland Ohio, started Yambeka Audio in 2004 have since made budget home theater speakers that are a upgrade from home audio speakers, receive great user reviews, and rival system costing many times their price range.
Shippment and specs
When the 3 boxes containing the 7 speakers arrived at my door, I first noticed the condition the boxes were in. You could tell they had been thru somewhat of an ordeal.
There were a few holes here and there and the tops and bottoms of the boxes were rather worn. It’s was the Holiday Season so I didn’t expect the boxes to look like they just left the factory but I was a bit concerned about the condition of the speakers.
As I opened the first Main Speaker, broken pieces and crumbs of Styrofoam fell out onto the floor, but to my delight, the speaker was completely unscathed, at least in terms of appearance. It was the same story, second verse, with the second main speaker. But I was still a bit worried that whatever caused the damage to the box may have caused internal damage to the speaker cones or crossovers.
The box containing the center speaker and the 4 surround speakers was in better overall condition and the speakers were also in perfect visible condition.
Here are the specs
Main: H = 41.5”, W = 7 1/16”, D = 12.5”
Surround: H = 9.5”, W = 5 7/8”, D = 7.5”
Center: H = 5 15/16”, W = 17 11/16”, D = 7.5”
Max Power handling
Main: 80W
Center: 40W
Surround: 40W
Craftsmanship
Upon setting them up I observed that all 7 speakers showed great craftsmanship and build quality. There wasn’t a single flaw on any of them. I took the grills off and preferred the look without them, (it’s the audio engineer in me) but the grills as well exhibited great quality in build and assembly and the speakers looked great with or without them.
The Yambeka Audio emblem is on each grill (except the woofer grill) and looks very stylish. Very consistent and accurate placement and cool brush steel look.
…Which brings me to looks!
The mains have a fantastic piano finish that I must say looks smoother and more mirror-like than my $1,500 pair of Event ASP8 studio monitors.
The beveled fronts of the center and surrounds really make them look sharp. As well, both the tweeters and mid frequency drivers on the center and surrounds are screwed in place by shiny chrome hex head bolts. The grill pegs (rather than peg holes) are also chrome and equally shiny. The tweeter and drivers on the mains are nicely inset behind the smooth piano front. I love the white concave dome driver cones. The no dust cap design makes them look very streamlined and right at home in any modern or vintage décor.
What about the sound?
The what? Oh ya, the sound! After all, what is a 7 speaker set if it ain’t got good sound, but a matching set of doorstops and end tables?
The first thing I did with them (after snapping a few pics) was watch “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”.
I was pleasantly surprised by very balanced and movie theater like sound. Even without the sub woofer, the two towers (um… the main L&R speakers) put out a very full spectrum of frequency. The woofers really do their share of heavy lifting. They don’t go down as low as the sub but they certainly get down there and produce clear and defined bass that you can feel. This confirmed they fully survived the shipping!
As you’ve probably experienced, a lot of lower to mid priced speakers lack presence and can sound like a blanket is draped over the speaker. Since the whole point of surround sound it to enhance the presence of the sound, this dulling effect can really take away from the enjoyment of the medium. The Yambekas proved to be as bright and airy as speakers costing double or more their price.
The next test was some surround sound music I had personally recorded and thus was very familiar with. I chose a Shaw Brothers concert I had done in 7.1. I thought this might be an unfair test for any speaker system below the $1000 mark since I had mixed and mastered it on a system of studio monitors costing over 10 times that much.
All in all they held up quite well. Not nearly as 3 dimensional, lifelike, or present as when I mixed it, but not at all what you might expect from a budget system in this price range.
It was very respectful to the original and still a delight to listen to. It did some stuff to the mid range (especially the center speaker) that I wasn’t excited about, but it was still in the same ball park. A little bit of boxy character and mid and high frequency smearing is certainly to be expected and it really could have been a LOT worse.
I decided they were worthy to put to the ultimate test, so I set them up as my studio monitors and did some mixing of music and post production film audio.
This is the equivalent of attempting to tow a large house boat with a VW Beetle! So, I wasn’t expecting much.
I found it a little bit hard to hear the differences when EQing and adding reverbs and effects, but I did find them comfortable to mix on overall. The levels were easy to find and fine tune and the tracks gelled together quite nicely across the 360 degrees of placement.
Upon listening back to the mix I had created on my studio monitors, I blessed my monitors but certainly didn’t curse the Yambekas. After a little adjusting in the level, reverbs, and mild boosting in the mid frequencies (mostly between 450 Hz and 850Hz) to accommodate for my compensation of those frequency boosts in the Yambekas, I was fairly happy with the mix!
Final Thoughts
Over the course of 2 weeks I watched all genres of movies and listened to all genres of music that I have and have not made on the Yambekas and have found them to be a great value for the money. I however, have not attempted to mix on them since!
ORIGINAL VERSION LOCATED AT Yambeka Audio 7.0 Reveiw - Home Theater Systems - Electronics and Forum - HomeTheaterShack
Review by: Matthew Marcil
Product: Yambeka 7.0 speaker system
Experience: Audio Engineer (Tweek Sound and Mastering, WKXL1450 Concord NH Radio), audio engineering instructor (Audio Tools digital audio engineering course), acoustic consultant (Marcil Acoustic Consulting and design)
Gear used: Sherwood 7.1 Receiver, Akai DPS 24 – 2.0, - 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound digital console.
Room: acoustically treated and balanced 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, and 7.1 production studio control room.
Price: 7.0 System=$359.00 Shipped
Price: 5.0 System=$299.00 Shipped
First Impressions
The first impression that a set of speakers makes is often in their appearance.
One can’t help but judge (at least a little) a speaker’s ability to produce lush and big sound, by how lush and big they look.
However, a real home theater and audio enthusiast will always prefer sound quality over aesthetics. Have no fear; the new 5.0 and 7.0 line of speakers from Yambeka Audio has both in abundance. We’ll get into both sound and appearance shortly, but first thing’s first.
Company Background
yambekaaudio.com
Yambeka, means, “Blessed” in the language of Oshiwambo, spoken in the home country of company co-owner, Helvi Itenge, Namibia.
Itenge and her husband, Brian Wheeler of Cleveland Ohio, started Yambeka Audio in 2004 have since made budget home theater speakers that are a upgrade from home audio speakers, receive great user reviews, and rival system costing many times their price range.
Shippment and specs
When the 3 boxes containing the 7 speakers arrived at my door, I first noticed the condition the boxes were in. You could tell they had been thru somewhat of an ordeal.
There were a few holes here and there and the tops and bottoms of the boxes were rather worn. It’s was the Holiday Season so I didn’t expect the boxes to look like they just left the factory but I was a bit concerned about the condition of the speakers.
As I opened the first Main Speaker, broken pieces and crumbs of Styrofoam fell out onto the floor, but to my delight, the speaker was completely unscathed, at least in terms of appearance. It was the same story, second verse, with the second main speaker. But I was still a bit worried that whatever caused the damage to the box may have caused internal damage to the speaker cones or crossovers.
The box containing the center speaker and the 4 surround speakers was in better overall condition and the speakers were also in perfect visible condition.
Here are the specs
Main: H = 41.5”, W = 7 1/16”, D = 12.5”
Surround: H = 9.5”, W = 5 7/8”, D = 7.5”
Center: H = 5 15/16”, W = 17 11/16”, D = 7.5”
Max Power handling
Main: 80W
Center: 40W
Surround: 40W
Craftsmanship
Upon setting them up I observed that all 7 speakers showed great craftsmanship and build quality. There wasn’t a single flaw on any of them. I took the grills off and preferred the look without them, (it’s the audio engineer in me) but the grills as well exhibited great quality in build and assembly and the speakers looked great with or without them.
The Yambeka Audio emblem is on each grill (except the woofer grill) and looks very stylish. Very consistent and accurate placement and cool brush steel look.
…Which brings me to looks!
The mains have a fantastic piano finish that I must say looks smoother and more mirror-like than my $1,500 pair of Event ASP8 studio monitors.
The beveled fronts of the center and surrounds really make them look sharp. As well, both the tweeters and mid frequency drivers on the center and surrounds are screwed in place by shiny chrome hex head bolts. The grill pegs (rather than peg holes) are also chrome and equally shiny. The tweeter and drivers on the mains are nicely inset behind the smooth piano front. I love the white concave dome driver cones. The no dust cap design makes them look very streamlined and right at home in any modern or vintage décor.
What about the sound?
The what? Oh ya, the sound! After all, what is a 7 speaker set if it ain’t got good sound, but a matching set of doorstops and end tables?
The first thing I did with them (after snapping a few pics) was watch “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”.
I was pleasantly surprised by very balanced and movie theater like sound. Even without the sub woofer, the two towers (um… the main L&R speakers) put out a very full spectrum of frequency. The woofers really do their share of heavy lifting. They don’t go down as low as the sub but they certainly get down there and produce clear and defined bass that you can feel. This confirmed they fully survived the shipping!
As you’ve probably experienced, a lot of lower to mid priced speakers lack presence and can sound like a blanket is draped over the speaker. Since the whole point of surround sound it to enhance the presence of the sound, this dulling effect can really take away from the enjoyment of the medium. The Yambekas proved to be as bright and airy as speakers costing double or more their price.
The next test was some surround sound music I had personally recorded and thus was very familiar with. I chose a Shaw Brothers concert I had done in 7.1. I thought this might be an unfair test for any speaker system below the $1000 mark since I had mixed and mastered it on a system of studio monitors costing over 10 times that much.
All in all they held up quite well. Not nearly as 3 dimensional, lifelike, or present as when I mixed it, but not at all what you might expect from a budget system in this price range.
It was very respectful to the original and still a delight to listen to. It did some stuff to the mid range (especially the center speaker) that I wasn’t excited about, but it was still in the same ball park. A little bit of boxy character and mid and high frequency smearing is certainly to be expected and it really could have been a LOT worse.
I decided they were worthy to put to the ultimate test, so I set them up as my studio monitors and did some mixing of music and post production film audio.
This is the equivalent of attempting to tow a large house boat with a VW Beetle! So, I wasn’t expecting much.
I found it a little bit hard to hear the differences when EQing and adding reverbs and effects, but I did find them comfortable to mix on overall. The levels were easy to find and fine tune and the tracks gelled together quite nicely across the 360 degrees of placement.
Upon listening back to the mix I had created on my studio monitors, I blessed my monitors but certainly didn’t curse the Yambekas. After a little adjusting in the level, reverbs, and mild boosting in the mid frequencies (mostly between 450 Hz and 850Hz) to accommodate for my compensation of those frequency boosts in the Yambekas, I was fairly happy with the mix!
Final Thoughts
Over the course of 2 weeks I watched all genres of movies and listened to all genres of music that I have and have not made on the Yambekas and have found them to be a great value for the money. I however, have not attempted to mix on them since!
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Ok I figured I would give them a try, I just ordered the 5 speaker set, I figure for $300 how can you go wrong ! Will keep you guys up todate, anxious to hear them up against my Infinity RSIIIs.
Wow - those are sharp looking. I like the look more than my older Yambeka's - especially the piano finish. But then, I also only paid I believe $169 shipped for my 5.0 set. The logo also looks a lot more professional than the original one.
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Can't beat the price/performance ratio here at all.
Got my 5.0 set today, all I can say is wow, they are one heck of a bargin. So far very pleased with them
I ordered the 7.0 set today after talking to Brian, got a little Satelliteguys discount also.
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