I want to buy a soundbar - Yamaha YSP-1600 or something else?

[TheVoice]

I moved into a new flat last week, and have decided that I really cannot be bothered setting up my Onkyo 5.1 system again. I've had it for several years and it's done well, but I just want something simple and with less wires. It'll be used mostly for TV, gaming and music streaming.

The Yamaha YSP-1600 has caught my eye, and as I have £40 worth of vouchers to use at RS it seems a good deal. Is there anything better out there for the money? I'm inclined to not get one with a dedicated sub at this point as I have people in the flat below me and don't really want to be the cause of a noise complaint.

 

[TheVoice]

The Yamaha is £319 so that's the sort of budget I have. Had also been eyeing up the Q-Acoustics M3.

 

[TheVoice]

Yamaha soundboard are pants

Care to elaborate in a less obnoxious font size?

Thanks folks, think the Yamaha is my best bet. There was a Samsung one I saw recommended in a couple of reviews for the Yamaha also, but it seems to be discontinued as I can't find it anywhere despite it seemingly being a new model last year. There was a HEOS one that looked good too, but it doesn't support 4K passthrough which could be annoying in a few years if/when I upgrade my TV.

 

[TheVoice]

As i've already stated Yamaha are usually the ones to go for if you can afford their better YSP models. Samsung are now being reviewed very highly. I wouldn't tough any other company bar those 2 as it currently stands.

With any yamaha you can usually add a sub if you want more bass. They are wall mountable. They also have IR repeaters so you can place them directly in front of a tv.

They do use walls to bounce sound off of and obviously this won't suit everybody but they are "virtual surround sound" bars which can surprise you at times that the sound does actually sound as if it is coming from behind you or to the side of you at times. It' has caught me off guard once but it depends a lot on the source material and configuration.

I think in my new place it should work fairly well, the TV's off-centre in the room but I know from reviews the Yamaha can be configured to compensate for that. Seems like a good one for the price. I'll give RS a call tomorrow and see if they have one in stock.

 

[TheVoice]

That one looks quite good and nicely priced, unfortunately it's a bit too tall so it'd block the bottom edge of my TV. The Yamaha has a fairly low profile.

 

[TheVoice]

As luck would have it, RS have just emailed out a £25 voucher off any £300+ soundbar. I've also just been looking at the Samsung HW-MS650 but I'm not sure it's worth the extra. I've seen it for £479 elsewhere so I might be able to get them to price match, but that's still a chunk more than the Yamaha.

I'm not an audiophile so don't expect professional advice but I have the YSP 1600 and am very happy with it.

My setup is next to a window so isn't the best position for the simulated 5.1 but haven't noticed anything obviously wrong.

Games such as Oblivion (might just be it's age) do tend to sound fish bowly in movie mode so usually set this to stereo.

Again, might just be my position with the window but don't expect realistic surround sound, it's simulated (speakers slightly tilted to different angles in the bar) so there are occasional moments where it genuinely sounds like there is something behind you/in the other room but having had a proper 7.1 on my PC years ago, isn't the same realism.

Sound quality though us a huge step up from the TV speakers and my old Sony CT790.

I have a separate Yamaha sub but TBH, I am actually very impressed with the bass the soundbar provides.

Seamless spotify support is nice too.

Only niggle I have is there is no visual volume number on the bar/TV, only a +/- so you can't remember a fav level.

Thanks, great to hear from someone who's got one. It will be mostly for TV and gaming and a bit of music, the reviews seem to indicate it should do pretty well for that.

 

[TheVoice]

Sorry to pull up the old thread, but i'm in a similar position now. I'm looking at either the 1600 or the Samsung HWMS-650.
Which did you go for in the end?

I had the Yamaha for a couple of weeks but took it back. It sounded great most of the time, but I kept getting audio dropouts on services like Netflix and Amazon Video with it, so it seems like it didn't want to play nicely with my TV. I also didn't like the user interface or the abundance of LEDs on the front that don't really mean anything unless you're close enough to read the tiny labels.

I'll probably give the Samsung a try next, my TV is also Samsung so I'm hoping it should work nicely.

 

[TheVoice]

So are you going to buy the model mentioned above?

I'm half tempted to wait until Black Friday now!

I'm not sure, the Samsung appeals but for £420 it needs to be pretty damn good. I have my old Onkyo 5.1 system set-up again at the moment and although I wanted rid of it, now it's all there I might just keep using it.

 

[TheVoice]

I picked up a new soundbar around 6 months ago. Budget wasn't a huge issue as I wanted something fairy decent. After listening to bars by sonos, dali, Samsung and Sony I ended up with a monitor audio asb-2. Got a brand new one for £400, so it was cheer than all of the others I listened to but it's sounded to my ears the best by far.

New they were over a grand but are cheap as chips now. They don't allow you to add wireless surround speakers, or bounce sound all the room with processing , but it has a big, bold, detailed sound with a good deal of slam. Great speaker if you have the room

Far too tall unfortunately, it needs to sit in front of the TV.