New Soundbar from Yamaha Loaded with Features

Soundbars are a simple-looking device. They hang from your flat-panel TV, blending in and delivering audio from the display. But there’s a lot that this skinny speaker can do than perform as your TV’s audio sidekick. Yamaha proves this with the introduction of its MusicCast BAR 400 sound bar.

Retailing for $499.95, this soundbar do just about anything—whether you want to stream music, play music housewide, or enjoy a surround-sound experience. Key elements include Yamaha MusicCast wireless multi-room audio technology, Wi-Fi access to the most popular music-streaming services, optional wireless surround speakers to enhance home theater performance, and voice control via Amazon Alexa devices, including Amazon Echo smart speakers.

The BAR 400 supports high-resolution audio formats at sampling rates up to 192kHz with 24-bit resolution. The soundbar also includes a wireless subwoofer as part of the package, rather than as an optional component. Additionally, it incorporates a wide array of Yamaha sound-enhancement technologies, including Yamaha Clear Voice to improve the audibility and clarity of dialogue in movies and TV shows while maintaining overall sonic quality. Its Compressed Music Enhancer enriches the sound quality of compressed-music formats by restoring high frequencies lost during compression.

To integrate easily with any TV and other external sources, the BAR 400 features multiple connectivity options: an HDMI input, an HDMI output with Audio Return Channel (ARC), and optical and analog audio inputs. Beyond hard-wired connections and Wi-Fi, customers also have the convenience of connection from any Bluetooth-enabled device.

For home theater users, the soundbar offers both Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround^, and it joins a select group of Yamaha sound bars incorporating DTS Virtual:X post-processing technology, which creates a spacious 3D virtual surround – including the sensation of height – from any stereo or multichannel source.

You also have the option to add wireless MusicCast Surround-enabled rear speakers. MusicCast Surround uses a Wi-Fi link to send surround-channel audio directly from the BAR 400 to a pair of MusicCast 20 speakers, or to one or two stereo-capable MusicCast 50 speakers.

MusicCast Surround builds on the MusicCast wireless multi-room audio platform, which streams all of your music wirelessly to MusicCast-enabled products located throughout the house. You can stream thousands of internet radio stations, popular music-streaming services, and music files stored on mobile devices and computers – all controlled from the MusicCast Controller app. Streaming services include Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM Internet Radio, TIDAL, Deezer, and Napster.

The $499.95 MusicCast BAR 400 Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer will be available in September.