Yamaha YSP-2700
FOR Wide surround-sound; slim design; great connectivity AGAINST Needs careful placement; treble lacks bite
For more than a decade, Yamaha’s YSP soundbar range has offered a simple, compact way to get a surround-sound effect into your home. And the YSP 2700 could be its best-value iteration yet.
It works by using 16 28mm drivers, each with 2W of amplification, to bounce the sound off surrounding walls to create a 7.1-channel effect. Grunt is handled by a front-firing wireless subwoofer, creating a total power output of 107W. The soundbar should be placed centrally, but thanks to the Intellibeam calibration technology (which changes settings according to your room’s acoustics) it works with corner set-ups too.
There are three modes on the YSP 2700 soundbar – ‘surround’, ‘stereo’ and ‘target’. Select the first for anything movie-based and the second for music. We’d avoid the ‘target’ option, which creates a very narrow soundfield.
There are also a number of DSP modes for movies, music and entertainment. But this adds unnatural effects to the performance that are at best distracting, and at worst, off-putting.
The YSP 2700 delivers when it comes to connectivity, with three HDMI ins and a single out – better than the Dali Kubik One – plus one each of optical, coaxial and analogue audio. All HDMIS support HDCP 2.2 and 4K/60p video, and are able to decode HD audio formats like Dolby Digital Truehd and DTS:HD.
Ramping up the tension
The soundbar is a Musiccast device, which automatically makes it part of a multi-room system with any other Yamaha kit, plus it supports streaming over wi-fi (up to 24-bit/192khz), Bluetooth and Apple Airplay. It can even transmit via Bluetooth to a pair of wireless headphones or a speaker. Put on a movie and the YSP 2700 demonstrates just how wide it’s capable of throwing the sound. It’s not quite as convincing with pushing sound behind us, but everything else is placed with precision in a way that sets it apart from anything else in this test.
During a shootout with the Butcher’s henchmen in American Sniper, gunshots and explosions are delivered with a hefty amount of punch, whizzing from left to right and overhead with an enveloping sense of accuracy and agility.
It’s a well-balanced sound, with low-end wallop controlled, and lightfooted enough that it doesn’t impress itself too heavily upon the rest of the frequency range. It gives more substance to the midrange, which is focused and detailed. Voices have no hard edges and the sound has a touch more authority.
The slight clipping of the treble means there’s not as much expression in dialogue as with the Dali Kubik One, and the top-end zing in gunfire doesn’t have the same bite either. Dynamically it works pretty well with sound effects and soundtracks to ramp up tension. The YSP 2700 makes a case as a decent music system too, working as well with lossless music as it does Spotify streams. It times well, keeping itself coherent and organised during more complicated pieces of music. The Dali takes it for musical competence though, delivering more detail, nuance and insight, which ultimately makes for a more up-front, engaging performance. That’s reflected in movies too, but the Dali can’t boast such a precise, expansive soundstage, the wealth of connectivity options or accommodating design.
The Yamaha doesn’t deliver as explicit an effect as a full surround-sound system, of course, but the placement of sound in areas that other soundbars simply can’t reach makes for a more enveloping soundbar experience than any other we’ve heard. The YSP 2700 sits at the top end of most budgets, but its excellent performance and unique capabilities justify it.
“The Yamaha places sound in areas others can’t reach. It’s a more involving soundbar experience than any other we’ve heard”