When it comes to making the most of your TV, it seems like every brand you've heard of – and a few you haven't – make a soundbar that slots beneath your flatscreen. Many even offer some form of 'virtual surround' designed to create the illusion of multi-channel sound without the need for a separate receiver and accompanying mess of cables.
But few soundbars are as consistently brilliant as Yamaha's. Some of the company's sound bars have received What Hi-Fi?'s prestigious five star rating, thanks in part to its Digital Sound Projector technology. All of Yamaha's high-performance soundbars and soundbases carry the YSP model prefix, which it stands for Yamaha Sound Projector.
What sets Yamaha Sound Projectors apart is that they don't deal in illusory surround sound. Instead, they deliver real 3D surround sound from a single enclosure, using multiple drivers and high-powered digital processing to steer sound around a living room.
Steering the sound
Inside a the flagship YSP-5600 are 44 drivers in an array, each with its own 2W amplifier, along with two woofers paired with individual 20W amps. Small speaker drivers are, by their very nature, fairly directional, which is why high frequencies tend to reduce in volume as you move in front of them. By altering the audio output of several of these drive units, positioned close together, Yamaha intensifies this 'beaming' effect, enabling it to steer the sound with surprising accuracy.
Not only does this enable audio effects to be placed precisely in front of you, creating a thrilling sonic image across your field of vision, but also in the height dimension for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. 4cm speakers – 32 of them – create the horizontal sound beams, while a further dozen 2.8cm units produce and steer the height channels, delivering 7.1.2-channel sound from a unit just a metre wide and 21cm high. The YSP-5600 is about filling your room with sound, not speakers.
A Sound Projector for every room
Yamaha Digital Sound Projector technology is available in a range of soundbars and soundbases. The slimline YSP-2700 soundbar measures a mere 5.1cm tall, and comes with its own compact 75-watt subwoofer. The YSP delivers 7.1-channel sound from enclosures so dinky they're all but invisible. That gives you superb surround sound even in the smallest rooms, all without the complexity and clutter of traditional home cinema systems.
What's more, Yamaha soundbars are as accomplished with music as they are with your favourite movies and games or the weekend's big football match. Yamaha's MusicCast multi-room technology is built-in, connecting them with other MusicCast speakers and systems – of which there are almost 40 – to fill your entire home with sound.
You can stream music from your phone or tablet using Bluetooth, and share it in every room with a MusicCast product, or access your favourite tunes from a computer on your home network, a network store, or streaming services like Napster and Spotify. It's all controlled from the palm of your hand using the free MusicCast app – and now, thanks to new Alexa integration, with your voice too.
Go beyond making more of your TV sound: with a Yamaha Digital Sound Projector soundbar or soundbase, you open up your whole home to a world of music.
To find out more about Yamaha’s Sound Projector range, click here >>