Yamaha YSP-900 Digital Sound Projector (Black)

Comment: As stated by others, this is not a "true" surround sound system. However, it works very well at expanding the sound stage, producing convincing effects which make you believe the sound is not coming from a single source. This is my second attempt at sound bar technology. The first was a Soundmatters Slimstage. Although the packing of the Slimstage was more desirable, their Euphony technology for me produced strange artifacts. Although I was able to get great sound from the Slimstage, I found myself constantly having to adjust it to achieve a desired effect. However, with some content, I could never quite dial it in. The purpose for my selection of sound bar technology was to enable full bodied sound within a living room environment, without intruding on the space with a half dozen ugly speakers. I desired a system which would remain virtually invisible, yet retain full this bodied sound. The YSP does this well. But, as many have also said, a subwoofer is really required to get full impact. Now, off to find the invisible subwoofer.

Comment: Using this with a 46" Samsung LCD. Better sound than built-in speakers by far, but even with a subwoofer, not what you can call close to full-range, clear sound and very subtle surround effect. Useful if you don't want to take up space and run wires for true surround.

Comment: The Yamaha YSP-900 sound bar is a great speaker system with an excellent fit and finish. I have the Polk Audio sound bar in my living room and although that sound bar is a bit better at music reproduction, the Yamaha is the best at creating the illusion of 5.1 surround with the intellibeam technology. The Yamaha is the sound system for our bedroom HDTV. My wife wanted less clutter and no wires in the bedroom so this fit the bill nicely. The sound is clean, crisp and well defined. It is not a discrete 5.1 system nor does it try to be. It is the best of the sound bar systems that I have heard for video sound. That is not to say that music on it sounds bad. It does not. It sounds quite good. It is just that it is not quite as good as the Polk Audio sound bar, or the pair of Klipsch speakers I have in the family room. The Klipsch are the best at music reproduction. For a small room the Yamaha YSP-900 is a great solution. I have my DLO iPod dock, the Roku Netflix player, an LG Blu-Ray disc player and the DirecTV receiver all hooked up to the Yamaha. I also bought the Yamaha YST-FSW 150 subwoofer as the main bar is light on the bass reproduction. That is to be expected. The sub is a great complement to the main system and integrates tightly with the YST-900. I am very happy with the purchase of the YST-900. Highly recommended.

Comment: I replaced this with my Bose 321. I had a hard time hearing dialogue with the 321. The set up on this YSP seemed somewhat daunting at first when I was flipping through the instruction book. So I did what any good man would do, I pitched it! Then I hooked it up my way. I simply ran an optical cable from my blu-ray and one from my cable box to the YSP and I was finished. I had already run HDMI's to the TV. After I ran the optimization with the included micrphone I was in business. The sound is awsome. I did add a Yamaha subwoofer to this to help with the bass and would recommend that. The price currentaly posted for the YSP900 as of 1-12-09 is the best that I have seen. The Geek Squad wanted $200 to hook this up with my TV, cable and blu ray. I'm glad I did it myself. Great for a room that you can't run wires or don't want to. I have a Bose surround in my living room and this sounds just as good.

Comment: I usually care about my audio equipment to be the best my money can buy, although I do not consider myself to be an "audiophile". I do spend more than $100 for my PC speakers, and I have spent more than $1,000 in high-end speakers in the past, but for my new LCD TV, I wanted something that was easy to set-up, yet gave me decent sound to enjoy. I heard about this new sound bar technology from Yamaha, so I gave it a try. I purchased a YSP-800 (the previous generation of YSP-900) to go with my 40" LCD TV. I originally was going to get a 7.1 surround system from Onkyo, but the thought of wires and cables running around the floor just gave me shudders, and even if I reduced the number of speakers down to 5, I'd still have to run wires across the room from the system, and around and behind the couch. I just didn't feel like cluttering the room with wires, and YSP-800 was the perfect answer for that.

For the sound, YSP-800 is amazing. I don't know how it really is doing it, but the rear channel sound actually sounds like coming from behind. And, the weird thing is the left and right channels just seems like coming from the left and right extremes, rather than from the sound bar location. My dog seems to be fooled by the YSP-800's phantom surround, and when the movie makes a big noise in the left direction, my dog and I turn to the left! The channel separation is really that good.

I've listened to two other sound bar systems before I made the purchase, and those are ones from Polk Audio and Philips. Both of them really gives you "virtual surround" but not actual 5.1 channel surround sound. They do a good job of giving you a feel that the sound is "surrounding" you, but not quite the same experience as the ones you get from YSPs.

The only complaint for YSPs, if at all, is the lack of bass. Of course this can be easily remedied by adding a subwoofer, but it would have been nice if a decent woofer was built-in to this unit.

So all in all, if you are even mildly interested in this unit because of the less clutter, but concerned about the sound quality and effectiveness of surround sound, I'd say you absolutely have nothing to worry about. The reason why these sound bars are not cheap is because it does provide great sound without complicated and cluttering wires. So give these YSPs a try, you won't be disappointed.