5.1 soundbar advice please.

sut

sut

sut

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28 Jun 2012
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hi guys

i am looking to change my sound bar. i currently have the yamaha yas-207 and must be honest i am not impressed i find 3 mian issues
the voice dialogue seems drowned out a lot of times especially when listen to sports commentary
the volume seems low when listening to music

and the surround sound effect dont seem that great.

i have it connected to a samsung q9 tv via hdmi to the one connect box these tvs come with so i would expect the setup to be the best it can. ( i.e i have done nothing wrong )

to this end i am looking for a new better, louder, clearer, sounds soundbar. either 5.1 or 7.1

i was looking at the JBL Bar 5.1 or the Yamaha YSP 2700. i was looking at these as they seem good and i would have wires hung around my house.

Can you tell me your thoughts on these 2 what 1 best and will suit my needs best please, or maybe recommend a system that is better. I know very little about sound bars so any help would be great thank you.
 
This is now at least the third thread from you asking what amounts to the same question in all three: "How do I get better sound than my Yamaha YAS207 sound bar?"

I've asked you on two previous occasions to detail how you've connected and what settings you've got in the menus to do with those connections. You've finally answered that it's HDMI from the TV to the sound bar, but I still can't recall whether you've listed out the menu settings for sound such as enabling Dolby Digital from the TV.

I'm going to be incredibly blunt because you don't seem to be getting the message. For this I apologise in advance, but until we know from you whether you've got this working correctly with the sources and the TV, then just telling us you have HDMI connected means **** ALL!!

You're wasting our time and yours.

Just because you have some wires plugged in, and you're getting some sound, it does not mean that the system is set up correctly. There's also the room to consider. Is this a heavily furnished room or somewhere that is sparsely furnished with lots of hard reflective surfaces and quite a hollow echoey sound?

List out each source, and the physical connection for it, the audio menu settings that go with it.

For example: Sky+HD, HDMI, audio menu set to Dolby.


You see, it may be that your current speaker isn't up to the job because the room or the connections or how the menus are set are getting in the way. Some of this i fixable just by making a few settings changes. Other stuff such as the room acoustics can't really be fixed with hardware. Just throwing money at hardware then could end up being a waste of cash and time.

So, are you going to play ball or what?
 
lucid said:
This is now at least the third thread from you asking what amounts to the same question in all three: "How do I get better sound than my Yamaha YAS207 sound bar?"

I've asked you on two previous occasions to detail how you've connected and what settings you've got in the menus to do with those connections. You've finally answered that it's HDMI from the TV to the sound bar, but I still can't recall whether you've listed out the menu settings for sound such as enabling Dolby Digital from the TV.

I'm going to be incredibly blunt because you don't seem to be getting the message. For this I apologise in advance, but until we know from you whether you've got this working correctly with the sources and the TV, then just telling us you have HDMI connected means **** ALL!!

You're wasting our time and yours.

Just because you have some wires plugged in, and you're getting some sound, it does not mean that the system is set up correctly. There's also the room to consider. Is this a heavily furnished room or somewhere that is sparsely furnished with lots of hard reflective surfaces and quite a hollow echoey sound?

List out each source, and the physical connection for it, the audio menu settings that go with it.

For example: Sky+HD, HDMI, audio menu set to Dolby.


You see, it may be that your current speaker isn't up to the job because the room or the connections or how the menus are set are getting in the way. Some of this i fixable just by making a few settings changes. Other stuff such as the room acoustics can't really be fixed with hardware. Just throwing money at hardware then could end up being a waste of cash and time.

So, are you going to play ball or what?
Click to expand...


relly sorry for the delay in getting back but i am a night worker.

i will try to explain how i have it all setup but please understand i lack the knowledge and expertise of you guys,

my tv is a samsung q9 ( with a one connect box ) so no direct connections to the tv, the one connect box has 1 arc hdmi connection, and 3 other hdmi inputs, plus optical in,

my xtrend et 8000 stb ( skybox more or less ) has 1 hdmi output, and 1 optical out,

and my yamaha yas 207 soundbar. has 1 arc out hdmi, and 1 hdmi input,

Now my current connection setup is hdmi cable running from set top box to the soundbar hdmi input,
i am then running an output from the arc out hdmi on the soundbar into arc hdmi on the one connect box.

the setting on the soundbar are surround sound turned on and clear voice on. above and beyond that there isnt really any settings i can change,

the tv settings are,
hdmi input audio format = bitstream
digital output audio format = pcm
that is the sound for normal tv through the set top box.

when i am watching netfilx the soundbar input changes from the hdmi light on the front of the soundbar to TV, i then have an option for in digital output audio format for dolby digital and that is selected. i also have the option for dolby digital+ although when i select that is says ( the dolby digital + is only available via arc hdmi for external devices that support the format ),

my room is a square room with me more or less in the centre so i assume the room to be ok, and i have minimal furniture within the room most is positioned behind the soundbar like the tv tv cabinet ect,

i hope this helps and has given you the info you need. if you need anything else please.
 
Last edited:
The TV (one connect box) audio out for HDMI ARC should be bitstream the same as the input. The reason is that sources such as Netflix on the TV use DD or DD+, but PCM is generally stereo 2 channel with a very basic form of surround encoding called Dolby Surround. This isn't DD or DD+compatible. Change the TV audio out to Bitstream.
 
i have changed the tv audio out to bitstream as you advised,
is all the rest of my setup ok ? have i wired in the tv to soundbar and set top box correct do you know,
 
If what you have written accurately reflects the connections, then physically at least, you seem to have it correct.

For clarity, there should be ONE HDMI cable from your satellite box to the soundbar, and this connects to the soundbar HDMI input. The other HDMI socket on the soundbar is marked HDMI Out ARC (or similar). This requires ONE HDMI cable which plugs in to the TV One Connect Box, and it goes to the socket there marked ARC.

As long as the TV HDMI audio out is set to Bitstream, then you'll be getting the best sound to the YAS-207 that it can handle.

The YAS-207 doesn't directly support Dolby ATMOS as delivered by DD+ for broadcast and streaming sources. Instead, it uses DTS Virtual:X to create a virtual height surround effect from DD and DTS audio sources. This is why the TV (I presume) tells you that DD+ is only available when used with auduio devices that support it.

When playing UHD discs with DTS:X encoding (the DTS version of full-fat Dolby ATMOS), then DTS Virtual:X has a cleaner source signal to play with and produces a more precise height surround effect.


Rooms with minimal furniture are a challenge for any audio system, even simple stereo. If you recall the sound of a completely empty room, it has a lot of echo. This is sound bouncing between the walls with nothing much to break up its travel other than some natural energy decay. A sparsely furnished room or one with lots of glass and hard reflective surfaces will exhibit similar characteristics. These audio reflections make it much harder to follow dialogue because the initial sound direct from the speakers is then smeared by the after-echoes.

The fix for this is not in technology. Once energy is released in to a room, it can only be lessened either by breaking it up (this is diffusion) or by absorbing it. There are commercial products that do this very effectively, but our room furnishings can achieve much of the same effect albeit to a lesser degree.

Carpets, curtains, rugs, soft furnishings such as fabric sofas, and us when we are in a room are all reasonable absorbers. The rest of the items in a room act in some way to break up sound waves by reflecting and scattering them. A good example of an effective diffuser is a bookcase filled with irregular and varied books. This will scatter a wide range of audio frequencies very effectively.

If you're having trouble following dialogue, then it could be part of the mix of the program that's the issue, and it could also be what's happening with the sound energy when it is in the room.

Part of your troubleshooting method should be to reduce the amount of energy getting in to the room by switching off any surround effect and limiting the sound to plain stereo reproduction. Where you have an uncarpeted floor, then you can also try putting a large bath towel on the floor at what's known as the first reflection point. If you haven't come across the term "first reflection point" before, its like what you'd get with a mirror on the floor. There would be a position for the mirror where you would be able to see a reflection of the speaker. This is the first reflection point.

Try these things and see how you get on.
 
the yas 207 is a bit crap tbh.

buy something higher end from samsung or a YSP 2700 as a minimum.

£200 on a soundbar isn't enough for decent sound. £400+ new is the base for something half decent and £600-£1500 for something really good.
 
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