Following our behind the scenes trip to Arcam last week, this week we’ve packed our camera, notepad and ventured to Milton Keynes to visit Yamaha.
As you may know, Yamaha merged its AV and music divisions last year, meaning that you’ll see Elton John's famed red piano below in addition to a couple of new desktop audio systems. For more on the music side of things, take a look at our blog from last year here.
In terms of new product, we instantly spotted what Yamaha call Desktop Audio Systems. Two of them in fact. The TSX 120 and TSX 130 (below) are both designed to offer deep bass and act as a decent sounding alternative to your bedside alarm clock. There’s even a little desktop pad on top of the unit to replace the space that the unit takes up.
The TSX 130 comes in black as opposed to the white of the TSX 120 and features a CD player alongside the standard iPod dock. The estimated prices for both units are £350 and £300 respectively. The TSX 120 and TSX 130 will both be available during April – expect a review in the next issue, on sale 11th March.
Wandering around the building, things were obviously going on behind closed doors and – being the inquisitive types we are – demanded to be involved. Door 1 saw us stumble into a Yamaha podcast recording, with an SG2000 guitar being played at loud volumes while the BBC’s John Allinson talked about Carlos Santana. You can listen to regular Yamaha podcasts here.
Next up, we uncovered a band playing with £1000 of Yamaha kit in order to win their Band For A Grand competition. You can listen and vote for the unsigned acts here. The winning band gets a day in a recording studio and you’ll stand a chance of winning all the kit they used. Presumably they already have their own gear, being a band and all. Yamaha also have their famous Music School program in the same building, which you can read about here.
Finally we happened upon that shiny red piano, approved and signed by Elton John. Yamaha have produced just 25 of these pianos and they’re available now, should you wish to buy one for your next dinner party.
Over the following months, you can expect a stack of exclusive Yamaha reviews as well the latest details of the complete 2009 product range – stick with us and you won’t miss anything be it AV, hi-fi or Elton’s special piano…
