Yamaha YAS-209 Soundbar
An affordable virtuoso sonic performer.
The Yamaha YAS-209 is an exercise in minimalism, with curved edges and a wrap-around black fabric grille. The top is also matte black, so no danger of annoying reflections from the TV screen. The build quality is good and the design will pair well with TVs that are between 55 to 65 inches. There’s also a choice between stand or wall mounting..
This minimalism extends to the display, which is simply a series of small LEDs on the top panel. These LEDs register which input you have selected – HDMI, TV (ARC), Bluetooth and Net – along with indicators to show if the surround mode or clear voice has been selected.
To the right of these indicators, you’ll find some basic touchsensitive controls for source selection, volume up/down, and power on/off. Thanks to Alexa now being built-in, there’s also a button to wake it up and another to mute the far-field microphones, two of which are located above the indicators and controls.
The YAS-209 supports lossy Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS Digital Surround, but also includes DTS Virtual:X. This is described as 3D surround sound processing for a single soundbar solution, which basically means it uses psychoacoustic processing to create the illusion of more than its 2.1 channels.
The Yamaha YAS-209 is exceptionally easy to setup - simply place it under your TV or wall mount it using the rear screw holes and provided template. The subwoofer is best positioned at the front of the room, either to the left or right of the soundbar
(whichever is convenient). Then all you need to do is connect your sources using HDMI, optical digital or Bluetooth.
The HDMI connections offer the best sound quality and the greatest convenience. Despite there being an HDMI input, you can simply connect all the HDMI sources to your TV and then send the audio back via ARC (audio return channel).
You can connect the Yamaha to your network using either a wired or wireless connection. For the latter you will need to use the Soundbar Controller app. The process is very easy, and you should be up and running in no time. Once that’s done you can setup Amazon Alexa.
As a smart speaker, this soundbar proves surprisingly effective. The built-in far-field microphones are suitably sensitive, allowing for seamless interaction with Alexa. The smart assistant is clear and precise when answering questions, and the ability to easily stream music is a great feature. There’s even limited voice control, which is useful when the remote isn’t to hand.
The Yamaha YAS-209 is a well-designed soundbar and subwoofer combination that produces as surprisingly big sonic presence, and thanks to Amazon Alexa it also doubles as a fullyfunctioning smart speaker. Stephen Withers
The YAS-209 supports lossy Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS Digital Surround, but also includes DTS Virtual:X.