The 2-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 have to sacrifice different options—corresponding to Dolby Atmos and a middle channel—within the discount.
This 2.1-channel mannequin boasts assist for Yamaha’s strong MultiCast multi-room audio platform and Apple’s AirPlay 2, and it serves up stable 2D film audio and top-notch music efficiency. However the $500 MusicCast BAR 400 lacks native assist for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X assist, the 2 main 3D audio codecs which might be quick turning into de rigueur on this value vary, and its DTS Digital:X mode sounds too harsh to be a viable substitute.
Configuration
With its $500 price ticket and assist for Yamaha’s high-resolution MusicCast multi-room audio system, the two-year-old Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400 is one thing of a throwback in Yamaha’s soundbar lineup. Prior to now couple of years, Yamaha has centered extra on budget-priced DTS Digital:X soundbars (suppose $350 or much less), none of which assist MusicCast. Certainly, Yamaha has solely two different MusicCast-enabled soundbars out there: the $1,200 YSP-2700Take away non-product hyperlink, a four-year-old soundbar with a powerful 16 drivers however no 3D audio modes, and the five-year-old, $1,600 YSP-5600Take away non-product hyperlink, a 46-driver (!) speaker that’s the one Yamaha soundbar to assist Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X. (A fourth Yamaha MusicCast soundbar, the YAS-706, has been discontinued.)
This overview is a part of TechHive’s protection of the most effective soundbars, the place you’ll discover evaluations of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options it’s best to take into account when buying on this class.
The Yamaha MusicCast 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.
As a result of 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” heart channel. The issue with so-called phantom heart channels is that voices generally 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 a bit later on this overview.
Ben Patterson/IDG
The Yamama MusicCast BAR 400 comes with drivers for the left and proper channels however none dedicated to the middle channel.
Due to MusicCast, you possibly can improve the BAR 400 by including both a pair of wi-fi MusicCast 20Take away non-product hyperlink ($230 every) or MusicCast 50Take away non-product hyperlink audio system ($500 every, ouch) as encompass audio system, or you would group the BAR 400 with different MusicCast audio system in your house for multi-room audio goodness (extra on that later). Yamaha equipped me with a pair of MusicCast 20 audio system for testing.
The MusicCast BAR 400 doesn’t assist native 3D audio codecs corresponding to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, but it surely does assist DTS Digital:X, DTS’s virtualized 3D mode that makes use of refined audio trickery to idiot your ears into considering they’re listening to immersive sound, full with top results and with out the necessity for upfiring drivers. Yamaha has been a pioneer in terms of DTS Digital:X, with the $300 YAS-207 being the very first soundbar (which we fairly appreciated, by the best way) to assist the format. However whereas DTS Digital:X does an efficient job at making a convincing 3D soundstage with as little as two speaker channels, it might probably additionally add an disagreeable harshness to the sound.
Measuring 38.6 x 2.four x four.four inches and weighing an affordable six kilos, the MusicCast 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. (It’s also possible to mount the BAR 400 on a wall, as we’ll focus on 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 in terms of 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. Lacking from the field: an HDMI cable (which ought to actually be included with a $500 soundbar) and mounting screws.
Setup
Getting the Yamaha MusicCast 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 can too mount it underneath your TV. As I simply talked about, a mounting template is included, however you’ll want to provide your individual mounting screws.
When you plug the soundbar into an influence outlet (the roughly five-foot energy wire 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 wire (so no, the wi-fi subwoofer isn’t really wi-fi), and as soon as each the soundbar and subwoofer are powered up, they need to join to one another routinely. If there are any hiccups within the pairing course of (I didn’t expertise any), you possibly can join the parts manually.
Ben Patterson/IDG
Yamaha’s MusicCast app makes it simple to attach the BAR 400 to your own home wi-fi community.
Subsequent, it’s time to attach the MusicCast BAR 400 (which comes outfitted with an built-in dual-band Wi-Fi antenna) to your own home wi-fi community, a doubtlessly painful course of that was (thank goodness) comparatively simple for this explicit unit. When you’ve put in the MusicCast cellular app in your iPhone or Android cellphone, you need to use it to find the BAR 400 through Bluetooth (urgent and holding the Join button on the soundbar initiates the pairing course of); you then join your cellphone to the soundbar’s native Wi-Fi community, select your own home Wi-Fi router, and enter your community password. Following all of the steps, I managed to get the MusicCast BAR 400 linked to my mesh Wi-Fi community on the primary attempt, a refreshing change from different soundbars I’ve examined that put me by way of the wringer whereas attempting to get them linked to Wi-Fi.
Inputs and outputs
The Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400 comes with two HDMI ports: an HDMI enter that helps 4K HDR passthrough (together with HDR10, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, 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 through 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/IDG
The Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400 comes equiped with an HDMI-ARC port, an HDMI enter, an optical (Toslink) port, a three.5mm analog jack, and an ethernet port, plus a USB connector for firmware updates.
Utilizing the latter technique means you’ll be capable to use a number of video sources (or as many as your TV’s array of HDMI inputs will enable) with the MusicCast BAR 400 with out having to swap cables. When you have a wise TV, you’ll be capable to ship audio from its built-in video streaming apps to the soundbar, as properly. The draw back, nonetheless, is that the BAR 400—like virtually every 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 Grasp Audio soundtracks on Blu-ray discs. (You may learn extra about eARC by clicking right 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 when you’re set on eARC and also you care about lossless Blu-ray audio, it’s best to take into account one other—newer—soundbar.
Another choice is to attach a video supply to the MusicCast BAR 400’s lone HDMI enter after which move each the video and audio as much as the TV, utilizing the HDMI-ARC port as an output. This fashion, you would join a Blu-ray participant on to the soundbar and luxuriate in lossless audio with out worrying concerning the eARC difficulty. With just one HDMI enter on the BAR 400, nonetheless, you’d have to swap cables (or else use a third-party HDMI splitter, which comes with its personal complications) to make use of different video sources (corresponding to a sport console or a streaming TV set-box) with the soundbar, and also you wouldn’t be capable to pipe in audio from built-in good TV apps.
Moreover its HDMI ports, the MusicCast BAR 400 comes with an optical (Toslink) enter, an analog three.5mm jack, and a quick (10/100) ethernet port. A USB Kind-A port permits for firmware updates however can’t be used to stream media recordsdata to the speaker.
Indicators, buttons, and distant
The Yamaha MusicCast 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 high 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 symptoms are robust to see, interval, and that’s an issue when it comes to figuring out (for instance) the present quantity degree. Subsequent to the highest indicator lights on the BAR 400 are touch-sensitive buttons for enter choose, quantity up/down, mute, and energy.
The MusicCast BAR 400’s quick, squat distant boasts an intuitive format that makes it simple to make use of at midnight 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 Encompass button immediately above the rockers engages DTS Digital:X processing. Beneath the rockers sit buttons for the dialog-boosting Clear Voice mode and the bass-boosting Bass Extension function (we’ll focus on these in additional element momentarily). Briefly, many of the buttons you’d wish to press whereas watching a video are inside simple attain, even with the lights off.
Ben Patterson/IDG
The Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400’s intuitive distant is straightforward to determine at midnight.
It’s also possible to acquire restricted entry to the BAR 400’s settings utilizing the MusicCast cellular app, which helps you to change sound modes (Sports activities, Recreation, Music, TV Program, Film, or Stereo); toggle the Clear Voice, Bass Extension, and 3D encompass (i.e. DTS Digital:X) modes; and modify the subwoofer quantity. If you wish to management the BAR 400 with voice instructions, you are able to do so through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, though the implementation (“OK Google, ask MusicCast to set quantity to 30 for Residing Room Soundbar”) is fairly clunky.
MusicCast audio streaming and AirPlay 2
Moreover letting you fiddle with the soundbar’s settings, the MusicCast app additionally allows you to benefit from one of many BAR 400’s key options: MusicCast audio streaming.
Ben Patterson/IDG
The MusicCast cellular 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 in style music-streaming companies as Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, SiriusXM, and Napster (no Apple Music or YouTube Music, nonetheless). In case 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 MusicCast interface for streaming music companies appears clunky in comparison with the native music apps from Spotify, Qobuz, and Tidal, nonetheless.
The MusicCast app additionally includes a listing for scores of web radio stations, and it allows you to stream music from NAS bins. Lastly, the app allows you to management different MusicCast audio system and group them collectively. When you have a pair of MusicCast 20 audio system along with the BAR 400, for instance, the app allows you to hyperlink the varied audio system for multi-room audio playback (streaming the identical or completely different music to every speaker), or you would use the app to create a four.1 setup with the smaller MusicCast audio system performing as encompass audio system for the BAR 400.
Lastly, the BAR 500 helps AirPlay 2 audio casting (you would possibly have to replace the soundbar’s firmware first), permitting for direct music streaming from a Mac or iOS machine, in addition to multi-room audio management with different AirPlay 2-compatible audio system. It’s also possible to stream tunes to the soundbar through Bluetooth four.2, however there’s no Chromecast Audio assist, sadly.
This in-depth overview continues on the subsequent web page.
The Link LonkSeptember 12, 2020 at 08:34AM
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Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400 review: Multi-room audio, but no Dolby Atmos - Best gaming pro
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