Customer Ratings & Reviews

Awful. Don't buy it. Sound is horrible and it doesn't pair with certain remotes.

It was difficult to pair and the sound was not worth the expense. This item was returned.

Yamaha is not a brand name I usually think of when considering my home electronic needs. But this Yamaha 2.1-Channel Soundbar with 3" Subwoofers with Alexa got me curious. Would the quality be there? Both in design and the range of sound it is capable of producing. My first impression: This Yamaha Soundbar is modern and sleek, with very nice smooth lines. Simply visually pleasing. Most importantly though, it also fits perfectly between the ‘feet’ of my 50" TV. I’m not particularly fond of wall mounts for my electronics. Just my preference, but the option is there with this device. So how’s the audio output? Well, it’s definitely a clearer and cleaner sound than just what the TV speakers are able to provide, and has a much deeper, fuller range of sound. I could really notice the difference in overall audio quality when watching (and listening) to my favorite TV shows. The dialogue and music really did seem to sound better, and I could hear more of the background ambient ‘noises’ too. I did download the Sound Bar Controller app, but even so, it was a bit of a challenge to get things connected and working properly in order to activate Alexa. But once that was sorted (after several tries) we were good to go. I’m familiar with using Alexa with other devices, so I knew what to expect. There didn’t seem to be any noticeable delay once I’d given Alexa the command and the soundbar’s response, except for a few times I needed to repeat my command. But that can happen with any voice assistant. One of my favorite ways to use Alexa is in listening to music, being able to tell her the type of music to play, or a specific song. Listening to my favorite music coming through this Yamaha Soundbar, was literal music to my ears. Something that I really liked, was being able to operate the soundbar using my TV remote, once that was set-up. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has multiple remotes for all their various electronics around the house, especially in the living room where I primarily enjoy my home entertainment, and being able to use just one remote for multiple devices, is definitely preferable (especially when you can’t find the one you need). Bottom line: This Yamaha 2.1-Channel Soundbar with 3" Subwoofers with Alexa has a nice visually appealing design, produces good sound quality, and is in my opinion, an above-average option for this type of speaker device. The only downside, at least for me, was that the instructions could have been a little more detailed.

This is a spectacular soundbar at the cost. The soundbar beats itself on different levels. Most importantly, the sound quality is awesome. The sound is fresh and the different ranges very much articulated. The subwoofer albeit is near splendid as it offers life to the soundbar's performance while watching motion pictures. I like it best with the all of the enhancements (3D surround, etc) turned off. I leave it in TV mode all the time and it sounds excellent. Set up was very basic. I love the fact that it has a HDMI passthrough, in fact I wouldn't have got it otherwise. My TV just has three inputs, so I truly expected to have a passthrough on the soundbar or I wouldn't have had the option to connect everything. The HDMI ARC and CEC work perfectly with my Vizio TV. The soundbar turns on and off with the TV, and responds to the TV's volume and mute controls. Couldn't be simpler! The main complaint I have is the volume taper is excessively gradual, it takes a ton of clicks on the volume up or down buttons to roll out a significant improvement in volume. But you get used to that pretty quickly. Bass is good for enough. The built-in Alexa is gimmicky at times but does the job about 80% of the time. We stream music from Amazon Prime all the time.The instruction manual provided with the soundbar isn't detailed enough. I downloaded the manual online which contained all the setup related details and various other functions, features, FAQs and troubleshooting tips that are useful. An annoying issue with this soundbar is that it only works with 2.4 GHz network which I think should have been avoided given its 2020 and companies are doing much better in this regard. Other than that, I am content with the nature of the sound that it produces and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

I returned it. It had poor sound quality. Didn't have any cords

We have had it a couple of months and volume turns off automatically

I've been using the soundbar for about half a year now, replacing my standard TV speakers. The bar creates a full rich sound stage that fills my larger living room. However, it is marred with an annoying set up Application that just DID NOT work for me. I really didn't like the fact you can't disable the setup wifi, I understand it wants you to get the Alexa integration up and running...but I just didn't need or want it. However, I can appreciate the integration with Alexa and having a smart speaker in the center of your home entertainment center. Regardless, for what it is worth, the Yamaha just sounds spectacular. Past soundbars have struggled filling my vaulted ceilings, which ended up sounded dull and tinny. The Yamaha nails this out of the park. Using HDMI Arc, it connected to my TV via a singular HDMI cord. Easiest setup to any home theatre system you can have. For what I needed, I wasn't looking for the audiophile quality, this is great. It has made watching movies more immersive with the sound filling the room. For such a small bar, the bass is quite good as well...though don't expect any rumbling. The Yamaha YAS-109 is a great soundbar to upgrade any television speaker. You will enjoy rich and dynamic sound that no TV speaker will match. I just wish you could turn off that dreaded setup wifi.

Never show up went to Amazon they have great service !

The Yamaha - 2.1-Channel YAS-109 Soundbar is a small form factor sound bar. Over the last few years soundbars have been packed with more features and functionality. This entry level model has features such as Alexa which integrates pretty well with the Amazon ecosystem. I was able to seamlessly ask to play an artist and Alexa used my existing Amazon Prime playlists for that artist and played it. Alexa and all other functions were configured through the Yamaha Sound Bar app. Once I downloaded the app it was fairly easy to connect to your Wi-Fi network and setup services. The ports available include a single HDMI in and a single HDMI out port, optical input, network jack (for wired connections) an AC plug and a subwoofer out mono output to add a subwoofer via a wired connection. As for the sound it is generally pretty good, clear and not booming. Although with the “built in subwoofers” it does a pretty good job at providing a bit of punch to your setup. I still think a separate subwoofer is a better solution, but in a pinch this will do, especially in an apartment setting. I had no problems setting up Spotify connect to stream music through the unit, there is also Bluetooth connectivity, but no AirPlay. Overall I am pretty happy with this Soundbar, have not had any issues with it and think it is a pretty good value with good functionality. Pros: - Compact - Alexa integration - Full sounding - Clear voice function for dialog clarity - Spotify Connect and Bluetooth connectivity Cons: - None so far

Soundbars are a great solution to those who want a better sound for watching shows on TV but still neither do not want nor have the space for a full home theater setup. And there’s a wide gamut of soundbar ranging from a full 9.1 Dolby Atmos setup to a basic 2.0 setup. The Yamaha YAS 109 2.1 channel soundbar is a great solution for those wanting a basic setup with minimal space requirements. Following the success of the YAS-108/ATS-1080, the YAS-109 follows the design of a soundbar with an integrated sub-woofer offering a sleek design less the boxy external sub-woofer often found in soundbars. A separate bass module is available too. The main difference being the YAS-109 is now Alexa enabled thereby making it a smart speaker. And though it doesn’t have all of Alexa’s smart capabilities found in Amazon devices, it still greatly adds functionality to this soundbar. Alexa can be configured by downloading the Yamaha Soundbar Controller app from either the Apple Appstore or the Google Playstore. Also the app also substitutes as a remote control too. Setting up the YAS-109 is a breeze. You just have to connect an HDMI cable (not included) to the HDMI-ARC port of your TV and soundbar. And if you don’t have an ARC enabled TV you can also use the included optical cable for audio. Do note that this soundbar supports 4K-HDR pass through so you may want to use a high speed cable though. Unfortunately, this soundbar does not support Dolby Vision or HDR-10. But it supports most audio-codecs (Dolby Digital, DTS-X) out there. (Obviously by nature of the design, Dolby Atmos is not supported.) As for the sound output, the soundbar boasts of 60-watts for the sub-woofer and 30-watts each for the two channels. This is by no means room shaking but it is nonetheless sufficient in a medium sized room. (And as mentioned earlier, if you want more base a separate bass module can also be connected to this.) Also the soundbar has 3D sound which gives a wider sound but still cannot replace full surround speakers. (This is most noticeable in a bedroom rather than a living room.) Nonetheless it improves the sound output of the device which is most effective when watching action movies. The only odd thing that I found here is that the Yamaha for whatever reason has downgraded the YAS-109 bluetooth version to 4.2 whereas the older YAS-108 has Bluetooth 5.0. This personally has no bearing for me as I seldom use Bluetooth in this soundbar as I use Alexa to stream music. But I did notice that music streaming from Alexa has better overall sound (higher treble) when streaming audio as compared to using bluetooth to stream music. And lastly, this unit uses 110V only so those planning to bring these overseas should take note of this. These said, I highly recommend the Yamaha YAS-109 for those who want a simple 2.1 soundbar. For those who have no need for Alexa, the Yamaha-108 for a cheaper price is worth considering. And if you want more bass, the Yamaha YAS-209 should be considered albeit at a higher price.

This YAS-109 by Yamaha should be considered an essential upgrade to any room with just a TV. Great for a dorm/studio apartment because so much is packed into this extremely affordable audio component. Aesthetically, its quite a lovely device too - especially being the subs are contained within the bar itself - no need for a random box taking up unnecessary space in the room space. Our favorite feature is the Alexa integration. There is not one "smart" device sold by amazon w/ Alexa that I am aware of that has THIS good of sound fidelity. It also allows you to connect to our favorite music steaming service in Spotify, so you can summon playlists with your voice. Can also be paired with any Bluetooth device as well. Even cooler is that using your voice, you can switch inputs from listening on Spotify or your TV to your console - whether it be an Xbox, PS4, or Nintendo Switch. The HDMI ARC port is great because it allows your TV remote sound controls to work to control the soundbar volume (can also be done with voice via Alexa). Only minor gripe is that if you have the volume playing loud for music or TV and you command Alexa - sometimes she is too loud. Hopefully they will add a separate control for her voice in the future. Speaking of future - I've read that these Yamaha speakers being so smart, Yamaha may eventually allow for multi-room setups so you can have the same music playing through your home (maybe similar to Sonos, but a fraction of the cost). Certainly, this is a great option for those trying to get the best bang for their buck - and Yamaha did a superb job bundling some great features with their extraordinary expertise in sound quality.

This is a great soundbar but as of today it has not connect via arc with 4 different tv. I bought this with the intention that I would not have to manually input my sound. I'm not sure if it is broken or if it is not compatible. App is also outdated and have to go through multiple screens to operate soundbar. Stay away from yamaha.

I was truly elated to review this product because my primary TV operates on the Alexa ecosystem. Suffice to say, I was eager to set it up and put it through its paces. Firstly, I elected to download the app so that I can control the soundbar through my Wi-Fi as this is the methodology from which my TV is controlled. The app is highly intuitive as it has capabilities to control sound settings, network settings, and play music. I will note, you can opt to plug and play this device out of box as well. Sound-I was blown away by the sound that comes from this soundbar. My living room area is of average size and the bass produced from this device very much felt like a movie theater experience as the sound produced was clear and concise with clean bass. While I was pleased with the sound produced from my TV until adding this device, it truly was an upgraded enhancement. I now truly understand as this is my first experience with Yamaha why they have such a stellar reputation for manufacturing solid instruments; however, I've discovered this brand extends much more because of the rich immersive sound that is experienced from this soundbar. I am a homebody who loves and makes the most of HOME; therefore, I try to incorporate an entertainment system in order to feel the full effects. Overall, I am enjoying this soundbar from watching movies, listening to music, streaming, and audiobooks from Audible. I highly recommend this soundbar as it is entry-level but it gets the job done in a big way!

Powerful Sound, Alexa & DTS Tech at very affordable Price! There is a lot to say about this Yamaha Soundbar, but what amazed me the most, is all the great features, power, quality sound, and the technology that is included like Alexa, 4K HDR, Extra Bass integrated, and DTS Virtual X Technology, everything for retail price of $200 plus tax. That is what I called a great deal! So, let me start for the easiest part of the whole process, and probably the part that most concerns you, if you have a TV with HDMI ARC port (usually is located in port #2 in Samsung TVs or Port #4 on Sony, HDMI cable not included), or if your TV has the optical port, (optical cable included), just connect either cable from the TV to the Yamaha YAS-109 Soundbar, and that is it, you can have immediately powerful and clarity crystal sound for movies and video music! Ideally the using the HDMI port will be a better option, since it takes advantage of more features of the Soundbar, like for example, power on or off the unit when you power the TV. Out I strongly recommend once you have turned on the Soundbar, to install the app, the app named “Yamaha Sound Bar Controller” can be found either Google Play or Apple Store. I have both and the install is seamless and fast. Once you do that the app will ask you for your wifi settings in your home router, then it will try to locate your Yamaha Sound Bar in your network, and once it is found, it will perform the Firmware update. The whole process is intuitive and simple, which is something that I appreciate the most, because there are a lot of different sound bars in the market that are good units but with very complicated concepts and settings, and people like me prefer not to think too much about settings or learning heavy concepts, but to get good performance fast and simple settings. The app will allow you to set up alexa, and that is really cool, once it is set up, you can stream music, get updates, change the music selection, with voice control. Voice commands like “alexa play Music, alexa what is the weather, Alexa turn up the volume, alexa play the top play list on Amazon Music" and if you don’t have amazon music subscription, like me, I have setup up my amazon alexa with Pandora account, when you say “Alexa play music, it will play from my Pandora account or play the music you have stored in your phone or where the Yamaha app is installed. The instruction manual doesn’t say to much but as I said before, the whole process is very intuitive. There are other features that I consider really innovative, even if the unit comes with an integrated 3 Bass drivers, and the response in very good, it also include a output port for bass sub-woofer, and I connected to my oldie but goodie Yamaha TST-SW45 Subwoofer, that I had forgotten and buried in my garage. So I connect them using an 9 feet RCA cable, and the response frequency improved, obviously. The bass volume of the subwoofer increase or decrease when you turn up or down the volume of the Sound Bar. There is also a subwoofer volume up or down that can be controller through the app or the remote. The app also gives you the option to cancel the internal subwoofer in case you want only use your external Sub or by turning on/off the bass ext button on the remote. Talking about the unit this can be mounted on a wall vertical with the help of a template that is included, or place flat on a furniture close to the TV. The unit has indicators on the front with buttons on the right side that allows you to turn on/off the sound bar, change inputs, increase/decrease volume, disable microphone, which I found very useful for privacy considering that alexa will be enable at all time when you turn on the sound bar. However, there is an option in the app in the alexa section, “Voice control” that allows you to have alexa feature on at all-time even if the sound bar if power off. You can find more options to control your sound bar on the remote and app. Talking about the ports, it has one 4k hdmi in, which I found very helpful, I have had in the past sound bars with 4 hdmi in but I ended up never use them, but only one, when I ran out of ports in my TV. I always set up my HDMI units connect them first to the TV. There is also an Internet port that you can use to connect to a wired network in case you don’t use the WIFI connection. The Bluetooth will make your sound bar works as a Bluetooth Speaker. So I have a couple songs where my ear is tuned to test the sound response of my speakers, because of the bass and variety of different tones, Come Together (Beatles) and Royals (Lorde), and the unit didn’t disappointed me at all, the sound was great, clear, and in my living room area (15x15) was enough resonance and fill the whole room. The pairing was easy, I used my Samsung cell phone to find the Bluetooth device as “Yamaha YAS-109”, very easy. Something that I found really nice was that all the indicators works together as a volume indicator when you turn up or down the volume, very clever. Now, about the different sounds configuration, despite other brands that has a lot of different settings, this unit make narrowed to 6 options, Movie, Music, Sports, Game, TV Program and Stereo. I found out for me that best works the Movie (when you are watching movies), and Stereo for music, this is because is more suitable for music that is recorded in stereo, if you are using the Sound bar as a speaker playing your music. If you are playing music that is decoding 5.1 or playing from you tube, use the “Music” option instead. Now, remember that this is a 2.1 unit, which means that 5.1 or 6.1 formats will be decoded to 2.1, and it performs really well. Either on the app or remote you will find the 3D Surround sound button, which enable a sound technology called virtual X, other brands has their own similar technology, but this unit can make you hear the sound from horizontal and vertical directions when it is selected creating a whole virtual acoustic environment experience, so it will match either the visual as well as the audio sense experience, a lot of technology in this box definitely! The 3D Surround will not work with the “Stereo” Selection. To recap, with all the technology that is included in this sound bar, and the quality sound performance, this is a bargain, it is totally worth it, I highly recommend it!

Review for Yamaha - 2.1-Channel Soundbar with 3" Subwoofers with Alexa - Black Most flat screens can benefit from enhanced audio, mine included, so I thought this soundbar from Yamaha would be great for watching TV, but I soon discovered it was so much more! For the price, it really does deliver great sound to movies and TV. The extra settings for bass boost and and 3D sound really deliver, as well. You can also stream audio to the soundbar from your phone or mobile device and it has Alexa built in, if you’d like to use it for music requests and information. The hardware itself is clean and well-designed. It can hang easily on the wall, using the included mounting template, or sit in front of the TV if your TV is not mounted on the wall. Using the soundbar with a TV is easy and intuitive, the included remote is nicely designed and works well. The free app lets you update the firmware and is easy to use. I would rate the final product as 5 stars, except for one thing. I have to ding it one star for the poor documentation. I thought setup would be easy and straightforward, and it would have been, if one small fact had not been buried: the set-up app is easy to download, but will only work on a 2.4 GHz network. What is this, 2005? I spent quite some time trying to figure out why the app would download but not install. The error messages did not point me to the problem. Only after digging through the set-up doc, did I find the answer. This could have been easily identified with simple user testing and would never have been an issue if it was stated up front.

I wanted to upgrade the sound on my den PC. I don't use it much, but I stream itunes music to it, use the dvd player to watch older dvds and watch movies from streaming services like Vudu. I didn't know if a sound bar would work, but after reading the instructions and trying it out, tada, it works great. I ran the HDMI cable from the PC to the input on the sound bar and another HDMI cable from the output to the monitor. The screen went black and then fired up the splash/log in screen. Next I wanted to get it to run WiFi. I saw the NIC jack in the back, but I haven't ran Cat6e to the den yet. I skimmed the quick start booklet a few times and didn't see WiFi. Then I saw that I needed to download an app from the Google Play Store (Or Apple store). I enter the search as instructed and it was the first option. I installed it and the app failed to see the sound bar. I know to try a 2nd and 3rd time, but then I chose the option "try a different way" and it worked. It used the phones WiFi settings and saw the sound bar. After that it checked for a firmware update (which of course it had) and it took about 8-10 minutes to update. I was able to get Alexa working as well as Spotify. It also has Tidal and Bluetooth. I really wish it had iHeartradio and tunein. I' live on the back side of the San Gabriel Mountains and the stations I grew up with broadcast on those two services. I'm able to listen to KLOS, KGB, KOLA and KCAL, 3 on IHeart and the last on tunein. Hopefully it will get added in a software or firmware update down the road. The sound out of this is great. It's much narrower than my other soundbars, which works with this setup. It fits nicely behind the monitor and I can still see the controls. I also like that the remote has an Alexa button. I have an ASUS Alexa speaker in my kitchen and if I say Hey Alexa, they both answer. If I want to use the Yamaha sound bar, I just push the button and ask my question. No issue with both trying to answer. Back to the sound, it has a bit of bass, not much, but for this set up it's just fine. There is a subwoofer RCA jack in the back should you need additional bass. Just add your own and I'm sure it will sound wonderful.There is also an optical input jack should you not have HDMI ports on your source. Might be time to update the source, everything had HDMI now, lol. It's about time for those to be obsolete...ugh. Lastly, the remote is small, but laid out pretty well. The volume and subwoofer buttons are different so they are easy to locate by feel. There are 6 sound options on the remote (movie, tv, music, sports, game, and stereo). 4 source buttons (HDMI, tv, Bluetooth, and net). A button for clear voice and another for 3D surround. Oh and a power button. I haven't tried those, but the quick start guide says the clear voice will make spoken words and sentences clearer to the listener. The 3d surround is supposed to use DTS Virtual X and let the listener hear sounds at varying heights. As with my other sound bars, the Yamaha can connect by Bluetooth to a source. Usually I connect with my Moto G7 and play music. Again, works as it should.

Got this soundbar in August 2020. It's been three years and this has been a great sound bar. My favorite part about this soundbar is the subwoofer out port. I have a 10" Sony Subwoofer connected to the sound bar and movies sound great. I also like the Clear Voice option when watching dialogue heavy TV shows and movies.

This is a good all-around system. I like the look of the hardware: plain, black, and clean. It has a nice smaller size, at just under 8 pounds and just under 3 feet in length. Still, it is well-built and has a good feel. Connectivity is great for me with optical audio, HDMI (4K pass through), a subwoofer port, as well as some wireless options. There are a couple of ways to set-up it up, but the process I went with was quick an easy and I had no issues. I also made sure to grab the app since I am collecting too many remotes these days. Gladly, the app is pretty much all you need, and while the design is not perfect, it does a good job of giving you control over the system. If you prefer, you can simply use the provided remote. As for the sound, I am pretty impressed. It is always hard to set expectations going in, but this system outperformed mine. Clearly, there are better systems, but at this price point it does very well. The space this system was pegged for is not that large, but it easily filled that space. There is a lot of volume with minimal distortion. The sound is clean, with the mids and highs doing very well. The little subs do give out some bass, but it was a little lacking for what I was looking for. I had planned on using it with a sub I already had anyway, so the available port was all I needed. That said, I do think it is enough bass to keep most happy. There are also quite a few modes you can select to further enhance the sound quality. I mostly found them to be good with the Clear Voice being great for TV and the 3d Effect simulated sound being better than I was expecting. To make that long story short, my TV and movie watching experiences have been vastly improved; and, while it is not my main use for the soundbar, the occasional album sounds great as well. Now, as for the Alexa integration, I have to admit this is not really my ecosystem. I did set it up, although it probably took me longer than it would for those more familiar, and it did work. I can see where there would be value here for those in the ecosystem or for those who just want voice control, but I am just not sold on the idea that I need it here. We shall see. Ultimately, this is a good soundbar, a great value, and is exactly what I was looking for. It sounds good, is the perfect size for my space and comes at in at a solid price point.

Yamaha YAS-109 Yamaha has been known to produce exceptional quality audio equipments and this sounder is no exception. It is an excellent sounding sound bar in a small package. Although it comes in a small package, it is feature rich. Features ———— 1. 4K Pass Through 2. HDMI ARC & CEC 3. Subwoofer out (Can connect an external sub) 4. DTS Virtual X 5. Bluetooth 6. Alexa Built in 7. Wifi Built in 8. Subwoofer Built in Setup ——- Setup is straight forward, connect the HDMI cable to your TV, The sounder has HDMI arc so you can use your TV remote to control it. The remote that comes with it is very flimsy. So it is very convenient. You can also download the Yamaha sounder controller app from iPhone or android Appstore. The small remote is easily lost. The indicators on the sounder has subtle and won’t be bothersome. The sounder also has an additional HDMI port. Sound Quality —————— I am very impressed with the sound quality of the set. Crisp highs and not boomy bass. The bass is very impressive for a sounder without any subwoofer. The soundstage is also very good . The surround sound is Dolby X which does pretty good. I also played music streaming from my phone to the sounder through bluetooth and the soundbar sounds really good for both music and movies. I think it is a great upgrade to your TV speakers and you will definitely feel the difference. It may not be as good as Sonos beam but it is very close. Pros —— 1. Small footprint speakers and it does not stand out 2. Excellent sound quality - Crisp Highs and Bass for a small speaker set 3. Built in Alexa. 4. Wifi connection (Streaming & update) 5. Bluetooth version 4.2 (not 5 yet) 6. Has Sub out (For connecting optional subwoofer) Cons —— 1. No subwoofer with the package (although built in)

Got this to replace a Sony I was having issues with. Was extremely easy to set up & sound is way better than expected. Only issue is every few hours, sound drops for a second. Otherwise, very happy with it.