YAS-706

This became the sound system for my new 65" TV. Great value and great sound.

Simplicity and ease of use were clearly major objectives in the design of this sound bar. Set up is extremely simple: connect your AV devices, plug-in the sound bar and the sub-woofer, and power up. The sub-woofer should pair automatically with the sound bar. Operation is also very simple. There are several preset modes: movie, music, stereo, tv program, game, sports and clear voice. The downside to the simplicity is that there are no customization options. If you like tinkering with the equalizer or other settings, you will be disappointed. There is no calibration program either. AirPlay integration is very well done. After powering up the sound bar for the first time, you can use your iPhone/iPad/iPod to set up the sound bar as an AirPlay device, and to transfer your device's network settings to the sound bar (so you don't need to manually enter network settings). After the initial set up, AirPlay works seamslessly. You can select the sound bar for AirPlay from any Apple device on your network. The sound bar supports network stand by, so you don't need to manually switch it on for AirPlay. For lack of better words, the sound is very clean and smooth. In terms of clarity and subtlety, it compares very well with my current system built around a Sony receiver. The "TV Program" and "Clear Voice" modes make voices very clear without losing much detail in the sound. Generally speaking, instrument and voice separation is very good. I haven't watched any movie yet. Based on a few trailers, the sound is immersive enough for me, but don't expect a full surround experience. My only complaint so far is that there is no numerical volume indicator, and there is no way to display the volume level on screen. The LEDs on the front/top of the unit are used as volume indicators. The problem is that you don't see them when the sound bar is laying flat and you're sitting in front of it. Firmware update was very quick. Once the update is complete, all the LEDs on the top/front of the bar are lit. At that point you need to restart the sound bar. I have not tried BT or the MusicCast app, so I can't comment on those.

The sound bar performs as expected however, the subwoofer is weak compared to JBL.

While not the latest and greatest it is a very good set of speakers. A steal at 1/3 of the list price before it became unobtainam. Seriously, the tweeters at the outer edges of the soundbar do a fine job of projecting the stereo effect as well as my long dead Bose 3 speakers. The NS-WSW121 sub with a 5 1/4" driver was a little lacking in comparison. A SW315 sub solved that issue.

OK it linked fine but thats it. Hardly any bass from the sub-woofer. M brand new Samsung 2018 Q8 is louder, almost! Says it has surround sound and 7.1? Uh, try again. I bought it for $599 and returned it in 2 days. Trust me, I've had 3 sound bars. Samsung's 5.1, Sony's 2.1 and this one. The little Sony sounded better. This has NEVER hit the US market hard for some reason. Not worth whatever they are charging simply because it does NOT sound anything like how they list it in product details. Sure, you can crank up the volume to make it sound big but I had to keep getting up at normal volume to see if it was even on and the sub working. I NEVER WRITE REVIEWS TOO! I'm going with the Bose 300 system (Soundtouch bar, Acoustimass sub and a pair of Virtually Invisible speakers) for $1700 and calling it a day. My room is small and the Yamaha still sounded very weak. What happens when you put it in a big room? MusicCast is cool but other systems offer that too.4K pass thru worked fine too.

I bought to replace wonky tv speakers and stream music via Bluetooth with the intention of adding to the system as time goes on. When watching tv and movies I found myself frequently adjusting the sound as it doesn't have sound leveling and went back and forth from inaudable to way too loud, this was with or without using the clear voice feature. When i streamed music from my hdmi connected smart tv, the sound was impressive, especially for a sound bar. When i streamed music via bluetooth it was hidious. The sound cut in and out nearly continuosly. Sure you can use wifi to stream if you have a service that musiccast supports, but amazon music isn't one of them. My $20 sport headphones can stream bluetooth but a soundbar that hit the market at $1k can't (I paid $400)? Also I connected an echo, enabled alexas skill and wasn't able to get a thing to work that way. I called support and was told it may have faulty bluetooth peice and to return and reorder. I guess i'll give that a go since its priced so well(if it works). So far so disappointed😞 Now on my 3rd unit. This one has working bluetooth (the first 2 didn't) but the optical cable doesn't work on this one. Tried a different optical cable and the problem continued. I wonder if they can make one with all the features in working order. The sound is really good. It just rubs me the wrong way that i can't seem to get a fully functioning unit. Update: The bluetooth stopped working not too long after I wore the last review, then the hdmi connection failed as well. It was past Amazon return window so I went through Yamaha support. 10 days after they recieved the paperwork etc. MY "new", (refurbished), system showed up. Guess what, the bluetooth doesn't cut in and out on this one, it just flat out won't connect. I suggest buying a different make or model. I contacted them again and am waiting for a reply. I requested a different system as having 4 units not working properly is far past my limit.

After endless research we decided to but this, and it was great value for the money. Easy to install and operate.

Looks: 4/5- Don't like the cloth feel much. Solid bar, weighty, well-constructed. I get the sense that it is more meant to be mounted on a wall though. Laying flat, the speakers point upwards toward the ceiling. Still, there are other soundbars like that also. Though I was worried, I don't think it diminishes the sound much. Functionality/Features 5/5- It has Airplay (works very well), it has Bluetooth (take that- stupid Sonos), and it has an excellent smartphone app to help link with other Yamaha speakers(ex- WX-030). Setup is easy. Sound- 4.5/5. It does sound pretty damn good. Treble and mid-range is handled very well. The bass was full, maybe could use a bit more clarity on the base. Voices are clear in movies and TV. It has excellent audio processing (Dolby etc. from HDMI/movies). STILL- not as good as I would expect the $1000 list price to be though. Pricing- 3/5. I would never buy this unit at the full price $1000- that's ridiculous. I'm not sure why Yamaha is overpricing all their MusicCast units, but it's a stupid move. I understand that it took money to develop that type of integration system, but come on. I think $699 is a much more reasonable price point. TL;DR: Great system, lots of features, hopefully buy it on a sale or buy it LikeNew