The two-year-old Yamaha BAR 400 is without doubt one of the least costly soundbars round to supply high-resolution multi-room audio assist, however you’ll must sacrifice different options—reminiscent of Dolby Atmos and a middle channel—within the discount.
This 2.1-channel mannequin boasts assist for Yamaha’s sturdy MultiCast multi-room audio platform and Apple’s AirPlay 2, and it serves up stable 2D film audio and top-notch music efficiency. But the $500 MusicSolid BAR 400 lacks native assist for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X assist, the 2 main 3D audio codecs which might be quick changing into de rigueur on this value vary, and its DTS Virtual:X mode sounds too harsh to be a viable substitute.
Configuration
With its $500 price ticket and assist for Yamaha’s high-resolution MusicSolid multi-room audio system, the two-year-old Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 is one thing of a throwback in Yamaha’s soundbar lineup. In the previous couple of years, Yamaha has centered extra on budget-priced DTS Virtual:X soundbars (assume $350 or much less), none of which assist MusicSolid. Indeed, Yamaha has solely two different MusicSolid-enabled soundbars out there: the $1,200 YSP-2700, a four-year-old soundbar with a powerful 16 drivers however no 3D audio modes, and the five-year-old, $1,600 YSP-5600, a 46-driver (!) speaker that’s the one Yamaha soundbar to assist Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X. (A fourth Yamaha MusicSolid soundbar, the YAS-706, has been discontinued.)
This overview is a part of TechHive’s coverage of the best soundbars, the place you’ll discover critiques of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options you must contemplate when buying on this class.
The Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 is a 2.1-channel soundbar, with the left and proper channels (the “2” within the BAR 400’s “2.1” designation) every powered by twin 1.25-inch woofers and a 1-inch tweeter, whereas the subwoofer (the “.1”) comes outfitted with a 6.5-inch cone.
Because no drivers are dedicated to the middle channel, which is the place dialog typically directed, the BAR 400 mixes audio from the left and proper channels to create a “phantom” middle channel. The downside with so-called phantom middle channels is that voices typically leak into the left or proper channels, inflicting a unnaturally echo-y sound that may develop tiring over time. I’ll cowl the BAR 400’s real-world audio efficiency just a little later on this overview.
The Yamama MusicSolid BAR 400 comes with drivers for the left and proper channels however none dedicated to the middle channel.
Thanks to MusicSolid, you possibly can improve the BAR 400 by including both a pair of wi-fi MusicCast 20 ($230 every) or MusicCast 50 audio system ($500 every, ouch) as encompass audio system, or you might group the BAR 400 with different MusicSolid audio system in your house for multi-room audio goodness (extra on that later). Yamaha equipped me with a pair of MusicSolid 20 audio system for testing.
The MusicSolid BAR 400 doesn’t assist native 3D audio codecs reminiscent of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, however it does assist DTS Virtual:X, DTS’s virtualized 3D mode that makes use of subtle audio trickery to idiot your ears into pondering they’re listening to immersive sound, full with top results and with out the necessity for upfiring drivers. Yamaha has been a pioneer relating to DTS Virtual:X, with the $300 YAS-207 being the very first soundbar (which we quite liked, by the best way) to assist the format. But whereas DTS Virtual:X does an efficient job at making a convincing 3D soundstage with as little as two speaker channels, it could actually additionally add an disagreeable harshness to the sound.
Measuring 38.6 x 2.4 x 4.4 inches and weighing an inexpensive six kilos, the MusicSolid BAR 400’s essential soundbar unit match properly in entrance of my 55-inch LG C9 OLED, a 4K TV with a very low-slung stand. (You can even mount the BAR 400 on a wall, as we’ll talk about shortly.) The 16.6 x 16 x 7.1-inch wi-fi subwoofer, in the meantime, is large, cumbersome, and heavy (21 kilos), which is par for the course relating to soundbar-bundled subwoofers.
Included with the soundbar is its distant management (with batteries), an optical audio cable, energy cords for the principle soundbar unit and the subwoofer, and a template for mounting the BAR 400 on a wall. Missing from the field: an HDMI cable (which ought to actually be included with a $500 soundbar) and mounting screws.
Setup
Getting the Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 up and operating was a reasonably easy course of. I elected to easily plunk the BAR 400 in entrance of my TV, however you may also mount it underneath your TV. As I simply talked about, a mounting template is included, however you’ll want to produce your individual mounting screws.
Once you plug the soundbar into an influence outlet (the roughly five-foot energy twine is fortunately freed from an outlet-blocking wall wart), you possibly can then place the subwoofer close by, ideally barely behind the principle soundbar unit and some ft away from partitions or room corners. As with the soundbar, the subwoofer has its personal energy twine (so no, the wi-fi subwoofer isn’t actually wi-fi), and as soon as each the soundbar and subwoofer are powered up, they need to join to one another mechanically. If there are any hiccups within the pairing course of (I didn’t expertise any), you possibly can join the elements manually.
Ben Patterson/IDGYamaha’s MusicSolid app makes it simple to attach the BAR 400 to your house wi-fi community.
Next, it’s time to attach the MusicSolid BAR 400 (which comes outfitted with an built-in dual-band Wi-Fi antenna) to your house wi-fi community, a probably painful course of that was (thank goodness) comparatively simple for this explicit unit. Once you’ve put in the MusicSolid cell app in your iPhone or Android telephone, you should use it to find the BAR 400 by way of Bluetooth (urgent and holding the Connect button on the soundbar initiates the pairing course of); you then join your telephone to the soundbar’s native Wi-Fi community, select your house Wi-Fi router, and enter your community password. Following all of the steps, I managed to get the MusicSolid BAR 400 linked to my mesh Wi-Fi community on the primary strive, a refreshing change from different soundbars I’ve examined that put me via the wringer whereas attempting to get them linked to Wi-Fi.
Inputs and outputs
The Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 comes with two HDMI ports: an HDMI enter that helps 4K HDR passthrough (together with HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG) and an HDMI-ARC (Audio Return Channel) port. That provides you two choices for connecting the BAR 400 to your TV: both by connecting a video supply to the HDMI enter after which connecting the soundbar to the TV by way of the HDMI-ARC port (which, on this case, would merely function an HDMI output that passes each video and audio alongside to the TV), or by connecting your video sources to your TV’s HDMI inputs after which sending simply the audio to the BAR 400 utilizing the HDMI-ARC ports on the soundbar and the tv.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 comes equiped with an HDMI-ARC port, an HDMI enter, an optical (Toslink) port, a 3.5mm analog jack, and an ethernet port, plus a USB connector for firmware updates.
Using the latter technique means you’ll be capable of use a number of video sources (or as many as your TV’s array of HDMI inputs will permit) with the MusicSolid BAR 400 with out having to swap cables. If you have got a sensible TV, you’ll be capable of ship audio from its built-in video streaming apps to the soundbar, as effectively. The draw back, nonetheless, is that the BAR 400—like virtually some other soundbar that’s greater than a yr outdated—doesn’t assist eARC, an “enhanced” model of ARC that permits for lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on Blu-ray discs. (You can read more about eARC by clicking here.) It’s price noting that 2020 has been a tipping level for eARC assist on soundbars and TVs (each ends of the connection should be eARC suitable), so if you happen to’re set on eARC and also you care about lossless Blu-ray audio, you must contemplate one other—newer—soundbar.
Another choice is to attach a video supply to the MusicSolid BAR 400’s lone HDMI enter after which cross each the video and audio as much as the TV, utilizing the HDMI-ARC port as an output. This approach, you might join a Blu-ray participant on to the soundbar and revel in lossless audio with out worrying in regards to the eARC concern. With just one HDMI enter on the BAR 400, nonetheless, you’d must swap cables (or else use a third-party HDMI splitter, which comes with its personal complications) to make use of different video sources (reminiscent of a recreation console or a streaming TV set-box) with the soundbar, and also you wouldn’t be capable of pipe in audio from built-in sensible TV apps.
Besides its HDMI ports, the MusicSolid BAR 400 comes with an optical (Toslink) enter, an analog 3.5mm jack, and a quick (10/100) ethernet port. A USB Type-A port permits for firmware updates however can’t be used to stream media recordsdata to the speaker.
Indicators, buttons, and distant
The Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400 has neither a show nor indicator lights on the entrance on the principle soundbar unit; as a substitute, the indicator lights sit on the prime of the principle housing. On the plus aspect, this association means the indicator LEDs received’t bug you when you’re watching films or TV reveals; on the draw back, the indications are robust to see, interval, and that’s an issue when it comes to understanding (for instance) the present quantity degree. Next to the highest indicator lights on the BAR 400 are touch-sensitive buttons for enter choose, quantity up/down, mute, and energy.
The MusicSolid BAR 400’s brief, squat distant boasts an intuitive format that makes it simple to make use of in the dead of night though it’s not backlit. A pair of central and outstanding rockers for essential and subwoofer quantity flank the mute button, whereas a large 3D Surround button straight above the rockers engages DTS Virtual:X processing. Beneath the rockers sit buttons for the dialog-boosting Clear Voice mode and the bass-boosting Bass Extension characteristic (we’ll talk about these in additional element momentarily). In brief, many of the buttons you’d need to press whereas watching a video are inside simple attain, even with the lights off.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe Yamaha MusicSolid BAR 400’s intuitive distant is straightforward to determine in the dead of night.
You can even acquire restricted entry to the BAR 400’s settings utilizing the MusicSolid cell app, which helps you to change sound modes (Sports, Game, Music, TV Program, Movie, or Stereo); toggle the Clear Voice, Bass Extension, and 3D encompass (i.e. DTS Virtual:X) modes; and regulate the subwoofer quantity. If you need to management the BAR 400 with voice instructions, you are able to do so by way of Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, though the implementation (“OK Google, ask MusicCast to set volume to 30 for Living Room Soundbar”) is fairly clunky.
MusicSolid audio streaming and AirPlay 2
Besides letting you fiddle with the soundbar’s settings, the MusicSolid app additionally allows you to benefit from one of many BAR 400’s key options: MusicSolid audio streaming.
Ben Patterson/IDGThe MusicSolid cell app allows you to stream music from Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, and extra on to the BAR 400.
The app allows you to signal into such well-liked music-streaming providers as Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, SiriusXM, and Napster (no Apple Music or YouTube Music, nonetheless). If your music subscription helps it, you possibly can stream FLAC recordsdata with decision as much as 24-bit decision and at sampling charges as excessive as 96kHz. The MusicSolid interface for streaming music providers appears clunky in comparison with the native music apps from Spotify, Qobuz, and Tidal, nonetheless.
The MusicSolid app additionally encompasses a listing for scores of web radio stations, and it allows you to stream music from NAS packing containers. Finally, the app allows you to management different MusicSolid audio system and group them collectively. If you have got a pair of MusicSolid 20 audio system along with the BAR 400, for instance, the app allows you to hyperlink the assorted audio system for multi-room audio playback (streaming the identical or completely different music to every speaker), or you might use the app to create a 4.1 setup with the smaller MusicSolid audio system appearing as encompass audio system for the BAR 400.
Finally, the BAR 500 helps AirPlay 2 audio casting (you would possibly must replace the soundbar’s firmware first), permitting for direct music streaming from a Mac or iOS gadget, in addition to multi-room audio management with different AirPlay 2-compatible audio system. You can even stream tunes to the soundbar by way of Bluetooth 4.2, however there’s no Chromecast Audio assist, sadly.
This in-depth overview continues on the next page.