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Friday, October 30, 2009 10:16 am

Yamaha YAS-71
Posted by: Panaman

I've been looking at sound bar systems for a while now. I wanted something simple and not too bulky for our living room and wanted some surround sound for watching blu-ray movies. I finally settled on the Yamaha YAS-71.

The bar itself has four 3" speakers in it at 70watts per two speakers. The subwoofer has a 6.5" speaker at 70watts for a total of 210watts.

The system uses Yamaha's proprietary "AIR SURROUND XTREME" Its a virtual 7.1 channel technology that can independently recreate the surround-channel and surround-back-channel in stereo. It supports Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Digital Neo Logic, and Cinema DSP. It has an FM tuner and support for an optional IPOD dock (which I ordered but have not received yet).

It arrived in a monster size box with all the usually packing inside so the UPS guy can kick it around all he wants.

I decided to employ some help for unboxing the system.

This is the sound bar and basically the control unit. Its not very big at all.

The unit has hangers on the back and comes with a template if you choose to hang it on the wall.

The subwoofer is about the size of a mid tower pc case and the remote control also performs as chew toy for my daughter.

Everything plugs in the back of the subwoofer. Two cables go from the subwoofer to the sound bar and are pretty long so you could easy space them apart easily. It doesn't have a ton of inputs but has enough for what I needed it for. It has two digital optical connections, one digital coax, and 1 anolog rca input. I used the two opticals for my media PC and the Panasonic Blu-Ray player. The digital coax is being used for my cable box. I could have hooked up the Nintendo Wii to the rca input but I need to get another cable for that.

The system is very stylish and fits perfectly on my stand.

To sum up this review, the sound is great. I would say it could compete with a true 7.1 system but at the same time I don't have speakers all over the room either. It is very simple to setup and I am able to crank this unit up with no distortion of any kind. The system retails for $599, but I bought it at amazon.com and payed $250 plus shipping. I highly doubt you could buy any other 5.1 or 7.1 system that would sound better than this unit for for the price that I payed.

It looks like the price went up to $280
Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-YAS-71BL-Fron...4099&sr=8-1

Most Recent Comments (Add Your Own or View All)

Friday, October 30 2009 - 12:50 PM
TOoSmOotH	Nice.. How big is the room? I heard they don't do as well in large rooms. Smooth out
Friday, October 30 2009 - 3:29 PM
Panaman	My living room is about 12ft X 20ft with vaulted ceilings... probably not the most ideal room configuration for this unit but it actually works just fine.
Wednesday, November 4 2009 - 2:08 PM
Bren	Nice, thanks for the review. I've actually started looking at soundbars as well for my condo. Best Buy as a Boston Acoustic one with a wireless sub-woofer which look interesting. For this one, does the subwoofer plug into an outlet (powered?) AND the speaker bar itself, or just the sub, or neither?
Wednesday, November 4 2009 - 3:22 PM
Panaman	the powercord is on the sub woofer.... There are two cords, each about 12 feet long going from the sound bar to the subwoofer.... I assume one is for the speakers and the other is for the control unit..... All your components plug into the subwoofer... Also it has a nice cover that you screw on the back to hid all the connections and also makes it so little kids can't pull the crap out the back of it.

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