Yamaha YAS-93

Perfect Soundbar from Yamaha – I had been looking for a soundbar to fit my Samsung smart TV as being a "thin" set the sound from the speakers leave a lot to be desired. The Yamaha sound bar does a great job. Easy to install and unobtrusive. Connect to the TV, plug it in and play. Easy. And the handset has all you need. My only problem is that the OE batteries died early so I replaced them with rechargeable. Since then no probs and a great sound.

2.1 Sound Bar System – Recently I had a problem with my Phillips sound bar. Although it was great sound bar, it for some reason it could not playback movies after a while. A very strange drop in and out effect. Though the free-view it was fine, but as soon as I subjected it to digital sound it fell right over. Anyway back to the review....... I had to find a replacement and I wanted the same quality as the Phillips in terms of well balanced sound. I looked around and thought id found the perfect sound bar, but it had sold out big time. Typical, so I had to move on.

I came across the sound bar at Dick Smith on their online store. The price was on special at $170 reduced to not sure lol. I searched online for some reviews about it and a site I used to go on a lot (Trusted Reviews) was talking about it. I had a read and they seem to say that the system was well balanced and the bass was good. Being a bit of a audiophile myself I am very fussy about sound and having a B.S.c In Creative Music & Sound Technology - I should be.

I took a chance and went for it, picked it up the next day at Dick Smith and brought it home. The first thing that struck me was the size, looks like your going to make a table out of it from IKEA. It should be big because of the fact that its got 2 down firing subs woofers built in. Yamaha seem to have made an effort in the design department. A sub-woofer inside a sound bar is not really something you find these days.

Ok......, so how does it sound with films and muisc. Like the Phillips its well balanced and the surround sound effect is a nice added feature. The very reason I went for this brand and type was the fact that it supports DTS & Dolby Digital Sound Tracks and that is a must if you want to play Movies. As some of you will know that most films are in Dolby Digital and some of the very few are in DTS sound (The Best One).

The positives:

-Nice surround sound

-Bass is good enough

-2 optical inputs

-passive repeater for infer red to your tv

-DTS HD & Dolby Digital HD sound track support

The Negatives:

-Bass could be stronger

-As some reviews say at the high end it hits a strain point

- Restricted to 24bit 96000 Hz range and not 192000 Hz :( - Damit

This is the sort of system you put in front of your TV for as a replacement to the TV speakers and for Studio Apartment setups. I would not recommend this for big rooms with your 10 mates. Buy the bigger models from Yamaha for that.

Yamaha would hit the nail on the head if they had just put 2 more sub woofers on the other side making it 4 altogether. Other than that its not bad for $170 of your money. Seriously you would spend $1000s or more for brands such as B&W surround sound speakers.

There is a rear sub connector for connecting to an external sub woofer if you want to turn it up more. I'd wish Yamaha had the option to plug in your own passive sub woofer. Guess you cannot have everything.

Choose your environment and match it up with the right size of sound bar and you be fine.