Question Yamaha YAS 207

HDready2015

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Hi,

The above looks like an interesting purchase.

Has anyone got any experience/thoughts?

I can't seem to find any reviews and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of stock here in the UK.

Thanks in advance.
 
Yes I am curious about this one too. Richer Sounds seem to have it checking today. I was bidding on a Yamaha 2500 on eBay but missed out, and I am slightly skeptical that I'll get any pseudo-surround as the wife insists the TV is in the corner so there just aren't walls in the correct place! Thus this implementation sounds more interesting but I am concerned there will be a sweet spot for listening - but I guess I could disable DTS-X when I'm sat more to the side.

I found some reviews on https://www1.crutchfield.com/p_022YAS207/Yamaha-YAS-207.html?search=yamaha_207&skipvs=T
Opinions on DTS-X are varied there!

For me it comes down to this - is £350 on a new sound bar with some perhaps OK surround processing less good than paying £350 for a second hand more expensive model where the surround projector bouncing stuff really doesn't work that well. I can't drive it really loud due to the neighbours, so I'm ultimately looking for a decent upgrade from the LG E6 built-in sound bar whilst my 5.1 separates are banished pending a bigger house.

I'm seriously tempted to take a punt on the 207 now Richer Sounds have it, but feel waiting for the AVForums official review is likely a sensible move - or at least some opinions from others here!
 
Yep, I'm similarly tempted and saw that Richer's say they have them. But haven't checked a store yet.

I guess I should wait for the reviews - surprised there aren't more.

My upgrade would be for LG C6.
 
I bought this from richer sounds just this Tuesday. Spent ages looking for something mid-range, for the right budget, and that would not block the lower edge of the tv. This fit the bill.

Very early impressions are positive, although note- I'm no audiophile! The virtual x mode is very spacious, but it can sound over processed depending upon the source and how much the soundbar has to fake the surround channels itself. The standard surround mode is more forgiving, and stereo is ace. I guess it depends on what you feed it!

I'm very happy with it so far. For my few days of listening- a more detailed, deep, and wide ranging sound than I'm used to. No doubt the more experienced reviewers will give it a better test with more higher quality source material.
 
Thanks. That sounds encouraging - off to Richers soon to check.

Good to get anyone else's thoughts.
 
So I went and had a listen at Richer Sounds and liked it so brought one home. I haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces yet, but so far I am disappointed with the way the subwoofer works. I've never had one of these wireless subs before, but it is really noticeable when it kicks in and out. Because the crossover is relatively high (180Hz?) you get this feeling that there's no bass, and then suddenly it'll do something, then it will stop. Whilst listening to Newsnight it would add something to someone's voice for half a sec, then shut off for 2 secs, then a bit more for another second, then off for a few secs, then work again briefly etc. It was as if there is a threshold for volume below the crossover point and they only bother kicking the sub in if there's enough signal.

I've re-paired the sub, kicked the subwoofer volume to max, fiddled with bass boost. At a high volume level you'll get it most of the time but for average day to day listening of TV at a low-ish level it is too stressful. You can kick the sub volume up and add bass boost which helps a bit, but then the sound is totally unbalanced if you push the overall volume up. I don't see why I should have to manage it this way - it should just work!

If there was an option to wire the sub I'd be doing it like a shot. It's not like the thing will be far away. Playing some classical music earlier I couldn't get the sub to do anything without seriously cranking the volume.

Either I've got a bad unit, something is interfering (but the units are a couple of feet apart) or this is a design flaw. Do other wireless subs work like this? Unless I can sort this it might be going back to the shop - or I'll just use the TV speakers for lower volume listening. The HDMI link stuff worked brilliantly with my LG 55E6, though I am concerned about audio sync via ARC which many have complained about so need to check all sources thoroughly. Using optical it has been fine.

I'll try and post some comments of listening at a reasonable volume. It sounded good when I cranked it briefly last night (but it was late by the time I got it hooked up). I did the DTS-X firmware thing but I can't comment on that until I've tried a decent 5.1 signal.
 
Thanks this is very helpful.

Now I'm worried! I don't have any wireless sub experience either, so keen to know whether this is just a bad unit or more prevalent...
 
I like the sub- I keep the sub volume in line with the main bar volume. To my ears the bass comes and goes appropriately. I can't compare subwoofer integration with other setups as it's been a while since I've had anything with specific subwoofer.
 
In the DTS-X mode the sub seems to be less of a problem for me, perhaps because it just keeps the connection open and puts more stuff into the sub.

Otherwise it can just feel as if it sleeps the bluetooth connection to the sub whenever it can, and as soon as some data exceeds a threshold it wakes it up. I was watching Breaking Bad earlier and it was just a lot of dialogue and in stereo mode or normal surround mode it really didn't feel as if the sub was active that much, which left the overall sound field feeling pretty thin - but then occasionally the sub will kick in part-way through a sentence and then drop out again. Urgh. Switch on DTS-X and it didn't do that.

I reckon Yamaha could fix this with a firmware upgrade - just worry less about sleeping the sub bluetooth connection. I tried re-pairing the sub at one point and it did seem better after that. Could Wifi signals be interfering - but that's a different part of the spectrum to Bluetooth surely?

I have no doubt at higher volumes it probably all evens out. I'll do some more general watching this evening and see how I feel. I just wasn't expecting to be questioning the sound quality of a Yamaha device, and yet the way the crossover works at lower volume levels is very surprising. With my usual 5.1 setup I can turn off the sub and not care, but this bar feels boxy without the sub on.
 
Maybe it's a subjective appreciation of bass/sub placement/etc? I'm mostly listening at low volumes and the bass sounds in place.
 
These things are quite subjective I reckon. But I'm currently watching Logan on Blu-ray with the surround mode on, and the soundbar and sub are performing fantastically.
 
Maybe I'll try a replacement unit or just go for a refund. When there's music under a scene all is well, but if it is just dialogue I can hear the sub dropping in and out. It is driving me crazy! With an action film it is unlikely to be an issue as there will mostly be lots going on, but for something with quiet, subtle scenes it is maddening. I've even cranked the sub up and put a sock in it literally in the hope that it'll be used more consistently, but then it's all imbalanced tonally. I'll try and get another unit out of Richer Sounds. I can't believe Yamaha would let this out.

Sleepylaser - so in a quiet scene with just dialogue you get the sub active constantly? It's doing so low mid stuff so you really need it, and it's here that I can hear the sub clearly dropping out, then back in.
 
Sleepylaser - so in a quiet scene with just dialogue you get the sub active constantly? It's doing so low mid stuff so you really need it, and it's here that I can hear the sub clearly dropping out, then back in.

Hi. I'm not worrying about which driver is doing what. I've watched tv and movies with dialogue, music, and effects that don't appear to have gaps in the sound range.

I've noticed some thinner tv listening. I feel it's a case of the sound output matching the quality of the input. As said- entirety of Logan on blu ray was awesome (note that I've connected the blu ray player directly to the soundbar as the TVs downmixing was doing no favours over ARC).
 
Interesting. It does sound like yours is working properly. I can hear the sub suddenly kicking in - as an example someone will be talking and their voice sounds one way, then mid sentence the sub suddenly wakes up and fills in some lower mid-range making their voice sound deeper, and then a second later it will drop out, mid-word, making the whole experience sound broken. I can literally imagine a frequency analysis going on where below a certain frequency the bar is waiting for the power to exceed a certain threshold and then it sends some info to the sub. If the crossover was just doing deep notes you'd probably be fine with it, but as it is handling some of the frequencies of speech it is driving me nuts. If I put my ear next to it I don't hear the bottom end fading in and out, I can hear it starting and stopping with a hard edge. I'm struggling to understand how this could be a 'fault' as the connection is getting dropped totally and I noticed it within seconds of turning the thing on for the first time. I am fully expecting a replacement unit to be the same, but since no-one else seems to be noticing this maybe I have just been unlucky.

Anyone got any advice for returning to Richer Sounds? This thing is days old, but I don't want to have to cart it into London on the train again so I am hoping they will pick it up!
 
No - no ability to wire the supplied sub, or another.

I tried some DTS-X demo vids off the internet and ran them through in DTS-X virtual mode. I couldn't crank it but some of the surround steering sort of worked.
 
Quick update- I've now heard the odd bass moments that others have :( Only with dialogue only TV and Now TV scenes with the sub slightly up, so it's been rare. But it did ruin a scene in Game Of Thrones last night.

Reducing sub woofer volume helped even things out. But to the detriment of other scenes in the show.

It's a strange one!
 
Interesting! Glad it wasn't just me, but it's a bugger as otherwise it is a nice unit. Incidentally I noticed one of the oldest reviews on amazon.com mentioned this too. Anyways I got a refund on the unit from Richer Sounds today and went for a YSP 1600 instead at £319. No wireless subwoofer (though you can wire one in), it still has HDMI control support and so far so good. It was slightly painful to set up in comparison to the 207 which just worked; perhaps this was because the TV's HDMI control was still remembering the 207, but it took me 15 mins to actually get any sound out of the bar! In theory it's the low-end sound projector, and I did wonder about just trying to nab a YSP 2500 for the same price 2nd hand, but the lads in Richer Sounds Watford were nice and I do love walking out of a shop holding something rather than all this virtual shopping ;)
 
Interesting! Glad it wasn't just me, but it's a bugger as otherwise it is a nice unit. Incidentally I noticed one of the oldest reviews on amazon.com mentioned this too. Anyways I got a refund on the unit from Richer Sounds today and went for a YSP 1600 instead at £319. No wireless subwoofer (though you can wire one in), it still has HDMI control support and so far so good. It was slightly painful to set up in comparison to the 207 which just worked; perhaps this was because the TV's HDMI control was still remembering the 207, but it took me 15 mins to actually get any sound out of the bar! In theory it's the low-end sound projector, and I did wonder about just trying to nab a YSP 2500 for the same price 2nd hand, but the lads in Richer Sounds Watford were nice and I do love walking out of a shop holding something rather than all this virtual shopping ;)

How's the 1600? Shame about the 207. Can't even see them on the RS website now.
 
Interesting! Glad it wasn't just me, but it's a bugger as otherwise it is a nice unit. Incidentally I noticed one of the oldest reviews on amazon.com mentioned this too. Anyways I got a refund on the unit from Richer Sounds today and went for a YSP 1600 instead...

I'll be returning mine shortly too. Did they give a full refund or refund less depreciation? Did you return it as faulty?

And regarding the ysp 1600- how is the mid range and stereo mode? I wonder with that unit- is it one you have to have an even shaped room to appreciate?
 
I returned it as faulty. No quibbles from them and we both said we were surprised at Yamaha for releasing a product with this design flaw. I explained the fault in great detail, said there was an Amazon.com review of someone having the same issue. They refunded the difference in price but would happily have just refunded the bar - no further purchase was pushed on their side.

Yes the 1600 does require a rectangular room to get surround, and I have it in the corner so I'll never get that bit to work but I like the sound from it, the bass is decent and if I did want boom boom I could wire in my 20-year old REL. The front panel LED display is hopeless. I can't work out if it is getting Dolby Digital or DTS via HDMI (but I assume it is as the TV is set to pass that through) - but the Music Cast app seems good and I do like being able to stream via Wifi from my NAS this way, which the 207 wouldn't do. It's not the warmest sounding thing, as the official AVF review stated, but it is early days of course and given this is my first sound bar I'm learning too that it is no hifi replacement, just a TV speaker replacement. The mid-range fills out nicely though with the bigger top-facing drivers at each end, so you're getting a low bar in height but the approx 12cm depth allows it to do some really firm bass.

Arguably I could get any old decent 2 channel sound bar given the shape of the room. The 207 did have a very wide sound without sound projection so that was the appeal. However given my desire to have something that seamlessly does HDMI control (turns on/off with the TV and mirrors volume - easy for the wife to handle) and that fits in front of the LG E6 without looking too stupid the 1600 seems like a good compromise. I'm not expecting to hear surround of it.

Interestingly I did wonder whether for a corner setup one of the newer Atmos bars which have no rears but some upwards drivers would be good. They're just too pricey right now to justify but the 1600's shape would allow a couple of upwards tweeters.

Anyway def worth checking out the 1600. It's early days for mine but first impressions are good.
 
I'll be returning mine shortly too. Did they give a full refund or refund less depreciation? Did you return it as faulty?

And regarding the ysp 1600- how is the mid range and stereo mode? I wonder with that unit- is it one you have to have an even shaped room to appreciate?

So is yours going back, or is the unit ok?
 

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