Jordan O'BrienThe Yamaha YAS-306 and YSP-2700 digital sound projector may look like two ordinary soundbars, but Yamaha says that both should deliver authentic 7.1 surround sound from just the one enclosure.
Audiophiles have maintained for a while that soundbars simply cannot compare with a complete surround system, that could be a thing of the past if Yamaha has anything to do with it however.
How is the 7.1 surround sound effect achieved? The YAS-306 uses Air Surround Xtreme technology which generates surround sound using complex algorithms, while the YSP-2700 digital sound projector uses targeted reflections in the room to guide the sound to the listener’s position from the sides and from behind.
Both soundbars are compatible with Yamaha’s MusicCast technology, which is the company’s answer to the Denon’s HEOS and the Sonos multi-room system.
The YAS-306 is the more compact of the two, promising simple installation and connection to all of the user’s home entertainment devices. Yamaha says that this soundbar is designed for being placed in front of the TV or mounted onto a wall.
Unlike the YSP-2700, the YAS-306 is a complete package – with all the speakers integrated into the soundbar itself. That includes two integrated subwoofers, meaning once the single cable is connected to a power outlet – that’s all that’s needed to get started.
To achieve the perfect sound Yamaha says that the YAS-306 comes with five programmes specifically designed for any scenario a user may find themselves in. That includes music, films, TV shows, sports broadcasts or video games. Installers who would prefer a manual set-up will be able to fine-tune it to their customer’s liking too.
The YSP-2700 is arguably the more powerful soundbar of the pair, in fact Yamaha prefer to call it a ‘digital sound projector’. In the enclosure users will find sixteen array speakers specifically engineered to generate focussed sound that is guided to the listener’s position from the side and behind by means of reflections in the room. While that sort of functionality sounds a little trickier to set-up than the standard soundbar, Yamaha says that its IntelliBeam technology should make the process surprisingly easy.
Yamaha IntelliBeam works by using a highly sensitive microphone to automatically calibrate the acoustic properties of the room.
A wireless subwoofer is also supplied with the YSP-2700, which can be placed anywhere the user or installer desires.
In terms of connections the YSP-2700 has three HDMI inputs for connecting all the user’s entertainment devices, with the digital sound projector also supporting the 4K Ultra HD and HDCP 2.2 standard. The Cinema DSP enhanced sound offers 10 different programmes for films, music and other sources. Yamaha has also included HD audio decoding and a compressed music enhancer to improve heavily compressed MP3s.