Yamaha YAS-71BL Front Surround System (Black)

Yamaha YAS-71BL Front Surround System (Black) Review

I have to say for my needs this is a great sound bar. What my goal for buying this item was to provide a speaker system for my newly purchased Plasma TV with a single cable, Panasonic VIERA X1 Series TC-P42X1 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV. The problem with the television that I found affects not only Plasma TV's but LCD's as well is the speakers on the TV are either behind or at the bottom of the TV. At times it would seem no matter how high I put the TV I couldn't hear every word spoken. This problem didn't help when it's summer the Air Conditioner is always running and in winter the space heaters are running and on real cold nights the wall mounted gas heater runs and none of this runs quiet.

My solution was to purchase speakers that will point forward so that I could hear the television above all the other racket and I also wanted a sub woofer to accompany it because those lower frequency levels can never be produced by any television. The other benefit I found was I would be able to connect this sound bar to my television with a single cable, Belkin PureAV Digital Optical Audio Cable (12 Feet). My reasoning behind this was to have my all my devices connect to the TV directly: a Panasonic DMP-BD60 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player, a Philips DVD player both connected via HDMI, a Wii connected by component cables, and a TiVo Series 2 connected via coaxial cable. Then the single optical cable comes out from the television into the sound bar and all my sounds come out of the sound bar. The television had an option to have the audio turn off, like a permanent mute without a visual indication.

The other reason I preferred this sound bar was it provided a sound system without running cables all over the floor in all directions. The unit sits in front of the plasma TV and the sub-woofer fits perfectly right below in a television stand that I purchased from Wal-mart. Putting the sound bar in front of the TV was not a problem with the remote control as long as I aimed it just above the sound bar. Anytime the remote control was below the sound bar any functions for the TV would not respond. I found it only affected me few times as the volume was controlled by the Sound bar, channels would change on the Tivo. The only time it would be be affected is when using the macros on the remote to change the TV's inputs.

I rounded this setup with a Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote. This was definitely worth every cent and even though it uses 4 AAA batteries the amount of batteries needed to run every device remote would be 10 batteries (2 TV, 2 TiVo, 2 Blu-ray, 2 DVD, 2 Soundbar) plus the amount of space for 5 remotes versus 1 remote. The only thing I would say is setting it up on the computer took time to figure out and make it work the way I wanted.

The other great thing about using the remote is the ability to program macros for those who don't know what they are they are a set of steps pre-programmed into the remote which activates with a single button push. As an example watching Tv with the TiVo: pushing the macro button would turn the TV on, set it to channel 3, turn the Tivo on and turn the speakers on. Doing this the long way would require the use of 3 remotes and at least 4 buttons pushes in that sequence which would require every family member or anyone using this to remember that.

Yamaha YAS-71BL Front Surround System (Black) Feature

• 7 CH Virtual surround sound from two speakers
• Does not require walls to bounce sound off of
• High sound quality and accurate sound localization
• Dock Port for iPod or Bluetooth Connectivity
• Stylish Piano Black Finish Design

Yamaha YAS-71BL Front Surround System (Black) Overview

Yamaha's newest Air-Surround XTREME system delivers great surround sound and includes a powerful, stylish subwoofer for added dynamic bass output. The YAS-71 provides a unique Home Theater solution.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 18, 2010 15:28:59