MUSICCAST SURROUND

Yamaha’s MusicCast platform has proven one of the most successful at connecting together multiple devices in different rooms for multiroom music playback.

With its receiver ranges this year, the company has extended the system to the movies, connecting together devices in the same room, to enable the AV receivers to connect with wireless speakers.

Other multiroom systems, including Sonos and HEOS, have previously allowed the use of their wireless speakers to supplement the relevant front soundbar product, but Yamaha’s implementation of ‘MusicCast Surround’ with proper AV receivers will allow far more input flexibility, including full HDMI switching, a higher calibre of surround processing and a wider choice of front speaker solutions.

For the rear speakers and subwoofers, Yamaha has released three new wireless speakers, the first to carry the ‘MusicCast’ tag in their headline model numbers. So for rears you can use a pair of MusicCast 20 speakers ($349 each), or a single central stereo MusicCast 50 ($699). Each of these can operate as a standalone MusicCast music speaker, or be incorporated into a surround system either permanently or ad hoc as required for a big movie or for a bigscreen sports experience. To bring up the bass, Yamaha’s new MusicCast SUB 100 at $599 will also connect wirelessly to the Yamaha receivers to complete a surround set-up.