Yamaha - 2.1-Channel Indoor Compact Bluetooth Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer - Black

I bought this to use my small workout room. It is loud, but I thought it would be louder, loud enough, that I wouldn’t hear myself singing. Ha! But it could be operator error?? I have the sub on top of dresser and the bar in another area. Everything works as it should.

To begin, the item was well packaged. Plenty of styrofoam to protect everything. Everything was well wrapped and packaged and neatly laid out. Set up was a breeze. Power cable, connect to television, set the input, and boom! For flat panel televisions, these are almost a must-have. Instantly a huge difference. I tried many different forms of media and the sound bar made a big difference. Watching news, voices are clear and bold. No delay at all. Voices were perfectly timed. I then tuned into sports and the game sounded great. The crowd was roaring and you could feel the bass come through. Made a huge difference. Then tuned into a movie. Dialogue came through loud and clear. Conversations were crisp and precise. An excellent reproduction of sound. When it came to action scenes, the sound bar came through with an excellent mix of mids, bass, and treble. None of them overpowered the others. Car chase scenes were dynamic and explosive. For a 2.1 sound bar, this does a great job. At its price point, it’s the best 2.1 system I have heard. The easy access menus and remote control make it a clear winner. Without breaking the bank, this is a great compact system. Highly recommended!

This 2.1 Sound Bar with Sub-woofer sounds great for its compact size. The Soundbar is 2.9lbs, and 23-5/8” x 2-1/2” x 3-3/4”. The wireless Subwoofer is 12.9lbs and 13-1/4” x 6-1/4” x 14-3/8. Being lightweight and having mounting holes makes it easy to mount under a TV, monitor, or on a wall. The Subwoofer is not big and with no wires is easy to place under a desk or behind a cabinet. The unit comes with two power cables, a remote, spacers, a mounting template, pads for the subwoofer, and a Toslink cable. The soundbar and subwoofer come pre-mated and connect automatically. The soundbar has the connections, HDMI, 2x Toslink, and 3.5mm. The USB connection is for updates only. I slung my soundbar under my PC monitor and the subwoofer under my desk. For PC connections, you will have to use a Toslink cable. The HDMI interface only works for sound with an Audio Return Channel (ARC) connection. Connecting the soundbar directly to a video card or a non ARC TV HDMI connection will not provide any sound. You can control the on/off and HDMI control functions through the HDMI cable without ARC, but that’s it. You will need to a Toslink or 3.5mm cable without ARC. Toslink is limited to 5.1, but with a 2.1 setup such as this, it’s not a problem. Dolby Digital and PCM are supported thought HDIM or Toslink. I connected my PC to the soundbar via Toslink. If you want to use this with multiple items, you will need to connect them to a TV with the soundbar on the ARC HDMI slot, and have all other units go through the TV. Most PC monitors do not have ARC. Once hooked up the sound is quite good. Far better than small PC, TV, or monitor speakers. Unlike many small soundbars, with the subwoofer the range is greatly increased. The subwoofer is not overpowering and matches the soundbar nicely. The remote control is a simple layout and allows access to all the functions and inputs. On the soundbar itself, lights indicate the status and settings. You get 4 preset modes, Stereo, Standard, 3D movie, and Game. You also have options for clear voice, and bass extension. All provide slight tweaks to the listening experience. The soundbar, even turned up high never got distorted. The remote has two volume controls, one for overall and one for the subwoofer. If you don’t want to use a cable you can connect to the soundbar with Bluetooth (BT). Using BT, the unit will stay in a low power mode waiting for the BT signal and turn on as needed. BT sounded good and connecting was a standard pairing procedure. You can dim the lights and mute from the remote too. As I was using the soundbar on a PC, I selected game for the sound preference. Games sound great and with the bass have some punch to them. Music sounds good whether through Toslink or BT connections. The soundbar has a good range and the bass adds the low range nicely. The info button the remote will tell you the type of audio signal the unit is receiving by the lights that illuminate on the soundbar. You can also access the soundbar through the Yamaha SB remote on a tablet or smartphone. This works through BT and allows access to all soundbar features. If BT is on this can also be an easy way to control everything. The soundbar is compact, lightweight sound good, and easy to mount or place due to its compact size. With the subwoofer the range of sound is expanding providing a better listening experience. The caveat is you can’t simply plug into the unit with HDMI. The unit can be connected to two different units through BT. You have to have ARC, there is only one HDMI connection. Even with HDMI splitters, most split out the sound to Toslink, but I found none that would pass an ARC signal onto a split HDMI port if the source didn’t have ARC. But, you can always go wireless with BT if you are trying to cut down on cables. PCs, TVs, and many A/V units have Toslink ports and with the provided cable you connect easily. The soundbar frees up space and does its job well.