Sound+Image

Soundbar of the Year under $500

AV SOUND Yamaha delivers a soundbar without a subwoofer, at an entry-level price yet delivering full sound for movies and music.

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So a confession is required at the start of our soundbar section — or let’s call it an update on our overall view of the hi-fi and AV universe. For years we’ve been merely tolerating soundbars, considerin­g them a second-rate sound solution. With very few exceptions, we didn’t much like them, especially for playing music, a role soundbars inevitably adopt once sitting centrally in the main entertainm­ent space of a home. Well, times have changed. Pricier soundbars up in the thousands have extended the abilities of soundbars to remarkable new territory. But the biggest surprise is to find competent sound even at the entrylevel, as here, with Yamaha’s SR-B20A.

This is a soundbar alone, without the common wireless subwoofer. This not only keeps the price down to $329, it makes the whole package far more convenient to site and to use. The question, then, is whether a long flat bar-shaped speaker can create solid sound without that subwoofer. And thankfully the answer here is a fairly resounding yes.

Yamaha describes both its two new ‘entry-level’ soundbars as upgrades for your TV sound, something very much required in these days when flat screens generally mean weedy built-in TV sound. There is mercifully little pretence here that the bars will deliver ‘surround’ sound, other than options labelled ‘3D Surround’ and some rather optimistic claims for the inclusion of DTS Virtual:X. These marketing extravance­s aside, what’s promised is simply solid sound with which to enjoy your shiny flatscreen TV.

The 91cm-wide soundbar feels solidly built, stylish too, with black fabric wrap and curving ends, by no means a budget-looking bar. You can hang it on the wall, or bench it in front of your TV, and the bar can get sound from your TV via an HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) connection, or an optical digital connection, for which a cable comes in the box. Unusually there is no analogue minijack fall-back input here. There’s no networking of any kind either, but there is Bluetooth which supports both SBC and AAC codecs, primarily for music streaming from a smart device, we imagine, although TVs that can output audio via Bluetooth could also play to the bar in this way (at the peril of potential transmissi­on delay).

It’s a strictly stereo soundbar, with six drivers in all, yet from the very outset the bar delivered a large full sound with a real sense of size, while holding dialogue crisp and clear. There was reasonably wide steerage of effects as they sped from left to right across the screen. Featured music — always a challenge for budget soundbars — sounded musical, spacious and well-balanced, and we could leave songs streaming from an iPhone via Bluetooth, taking enjoyment rather than offence. And the thing we keep noting was the fullness of the bass, despite the absence of a sub (you can add one if you wish), while separate bass controls on the remote make it easy to adjust the bass slightly according to different material. You can even use Yamaha’s app (which connects via Bluetooth) to play with the various sound modes and other options. To deliver this at $329 is well worthy of award status. More info: au.yamaha.com

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