Yamaha Audio YAS-209BL Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer, Bluetooth, and Alexa Voice Control Built-In,Black,36 x 2.5 x 4.25 inches

I was looking for a sound bar with Alexa built-in, which sounded good, but I didn't want to spend over $500. For this reason I give this one 5 stars. Set up was soooo easy... 30 minutes from the time I opened the box to when I was listening to TV and talking to Alexa. Yes, you have to download the Yamaha app to your phone so it can connect with your Amazon/Alexa account. The connection procedure was seamless and virtually effortless. Yamaha is a trusted brand for me. I have three Yamaha pianos/keyboards/synthesizers in my house, as well as a Yamaha subwoofer for my Polk Audio home theater setup. So I wasn't surprised when I opened the box and saw it contained the mother of all subwoofers, at least for a sound bar anyway. It was bigger than I expected! This unit replaced my old Amazon Echo speakers and subwoofer, and a Vizio sound bar (which, by the way, are also great sounding sound bars for the price but don't connect with Alexa). If there was a Vizio sound bar out there that had built-in Alexa, I would have bought that hands down, but there isn't, at least not that I'm aware of. The sound quality of this Yamaha sound bar was a step up from the Vizio, but I wouldn't say a leap. Remember, it was also under $500, like the Vizio. But this Yamaha with built-in Alexa was just what I was looking for. When you ask for Alexa, the TV sound automatically mutes, which I liked. It has various EQ and sound effect presets for TV programs, Movies, Sports, Gaming, and Music. Unfortunately, you cannot manually control bass, treble and midrange settings, which you could do with the Vizio, and verbally with the Amazon Echo, although you can set the subwoofer volume independently on this Yamaha. It also doesn't pair with my DirecTV remote, which my old Vizio did. Pros: Fast and easy set up / good sound / big, quality subwoofer / Seamless integration with Amazon Alexa and music Cons: Can't control bass, treble and midrange separately. Doesn't sync up with my TV or DirecTV remote.

I received this ATS-2090 soundbar from Yamaha in renewed condition. It arrived professionally repackaged, in custom formed protective styrofoam and each major component in a sealed plastic bag. The only piece which showed any evidence of prior use was one of the two power cords. The twist tie used to secure it was slightly distorted. No parts or documentation were missing. The firmware on the unit was out of date, but the sound bar automatically updated itself as soon as it was connected to my home WiFi network. I might comment that it (the soundbar) only supports 2.4GHz wireless networks. There is no 5GHz WiFi support. I had no problems installing the app on my iPhone, and I find the app easy to navigate and extremely useful. The sound quality is so much better than the built-in speakers on my bargain 40" flat panel TV. I knew the built-in speakers were bad, but after enjoying this sound bar it would be impossible to go back. I did adjust the bass level to +0 (it is set to +3 as a default) and I turned off the "bass extension" option using the app. With these adjustments, the bass from the wireless subwoofer integrates reasonably well and really accentuates most any TV program or movie soundtrack. I do have the wireless subwoofer located a few inches away from the wall, near a corner of the room, and just behind the TV itself. The actual connectivity took a little bit of experimentation. This is not a problem with the soundbar itself, but rather a consequence of the technology. My TV does not have an ARC capable HDMI connection. I am currently using the HDMI pass-through feature of the sound bar, and I have not connected the optical cable. My TV input comes only from an Android TV device, which streams content from a DLNA server, as well as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. The pass-through works perfectly for this application. It will still require a small learning curve for my family to become accustomed to turning the soundbar on prior to use, or perhaps I will need to defeat the auto power off feature (as described in the manual). I did experiment with the CEC settings on my TV to prevent devices from turning on or off unexpectedly, and I think I also needed to set the HDMI audio output setting on my Android device to PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS. This is all noted in the Yamaha documentation. Again, further trial & error with CEC settings may be helpful, as it would be nice if the sound bar faithfully turned on & off with the TV. I would definitely purchase this sound bar again, especially at the renewed price. I'm considering buying a second for the TV set in the rec room... can I run two of the wireless subs in the same household without problems? Highly recommended. (10/18 - edited for grammar and writing style) 11/20 - Owned for over a month now. I’m still extremely pleased. There’s been no weird situations where “it just stopped working” or anything like that. Totally would buy again.

I am working on transforming part of my basement into a semi-finished space for a small exercise room. Sound off of a TV's built in speakers isn't going to cut it, so I needed a better solution. I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile, but I do appreciate good sound. I have a bunch of conventional receiver/speaker setups throughout the house - several 2.0 systems and a 5.1 in the living room. In this basement application, I wanted something simpler and cheaper. I compared this Yamaha setup to a similar Polk and Klipsch sound bar/sub combination. I have had positive experiences with all three brands, but ended up choosing the Yamaha mainly due to the killer price. The subwoofer was a little bigger than I expected for a 6.5" unit, but not big enough to be an issue in my intended location. One oddity with the bar itself - the mounting holes aren't 16" on center even though they easily could have been. I mounted it to a cedar plank wall and fortunately I still had the back side open and was able to add a couple 2x4s between studs to provide a more solid mounting point. On sheetrock, I think you'd be okay with good sized anchors since it isn't terribly heavy but it would still be better if Yamaha had gone with a standard 16" spacing to allow for hitting studs. The unit powered up right away and was relatively easy to add to my wireless network. It is 2.4 GHz only, like many smart home devices but this is okay for me. 2.4 GHz could have interference issues in a dense apartment building, however. The app is okay - it seems they should have fit more controls on one page, but I don't anticipate using it much. I immediately queued up some songs on Spotify to try it out. It played over the network without an issue. Rating the sound quality depends on what you're comparing it to. If I compare it to the RCF Monitors in my garage or my Yamaha driven Polk 5.1 setup in the living room it's not even close, but I wasn't expecting it to be given the huge difference in price. Compare it to a solid set of 2.1 computer speakers at a similar price point, though, and it'll absolutely blow them away. I unfortunately can't compare to other sound bars since I have limited experience with them. For this application, it's plenty. Music does sound good - the bass is solid for a 6.5" subwoofer, and the mids/highs are better than expected for such a compact unit. I've been using it while I continue remodeling the basement and I'm happy with the sound quality. I leave it set on stereo as other modes seem somewhat artificial to me. I did run into an issue with Bluetooth - I could not get it to appear as an option no matter how hard I tried. I performed a factory reset and that fixed the issue. Otherwise, it's been working very reliably. Bottom line: If you're looking for a secondary system in a basement or bedroom, this should suit your needs very well. For a small to medium sized living room, it would be acceptable and a whole lot better than TV speakers if you aren't willing to invest in a 5.1 or 7.1 system. For the price, it's tough to go wrong.

Ok here's what you should be looking for that I couldn't find anywhere. This unit *does* allow the stupid energy star auto shutoff to be disabled! Yes it sound quality is great for the price point. ARC works well. But I bought it to replace a JBL Soundbar 2.1 which after about 5 minutes of no sound, like when looking for a video on youtube via Roku, the soundbar shuts off! Now I need to duck around with the TV and the bar to turn it back on once I figure out why my volume went up so high (because it's the TV speakers). Believe me you do not want all this. It's unusable! And JBL will NOT let you turn this "feature" off. Any manufacturer who forces this situation is producing unusable GARBAGE. Then you go try to find in stated features where anyone else will let you shut it off. It's very hard to find out. It's like they don't want you to know, or to advertise, if a manufacturer builds in a way to disable this energy star auto shutoffoff because the energy police might come get them. I'm the first one to care about the environment but if it causes you to be forced to buy equipment that just doesn't work adequately, what's the point? Just ban the equipment then. Don't make us spend hundreds of dollars just so we can pull all of our hair out everyday when the stupid thing shuts off in the middle of normal use. So this Yamaha *does* allow the stupid auto shutoff to be disabled. It's working flawlessly with my new Sony x900h. It turns on and off with the TV using HDMI ARC which is exactly what you want and expect. And that's it. Simple. Effective. Worth the price. The only other I found that do this for sure seem to be the Bose units...but you're going to pay way up for those. There are a long list of manufacturers like JBL that don't let you disable anything about energy star...and so they will shut off on you and you just have to like it I guess. Heck with what the consumer wants. So if you want to find out who supports or not the only way I've found is reading owner's manuals to see if the setting is there. Most I checked don't have it. Buy this Yamaha if you just want to be safe and don't want to deal with all that kind of crap. I'm confirming for you that Yamaha gives you the control you want. And if you want a brand new nice sounding JBL unit for real cheap drop me a line. It made me cry for letting me down like this. Thank goodness for Yamaha.

I had recently upgraded to a 4k TV and had an old vizio soundbar that worked just fine but upon receiving the new tv, found that I would have to use 2 remotes which I absolutely did not want to do. I have the Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer and wanted to continue using it as I really like the deep punch it has for movie action scenes. Many of the new soundbar packages don't allow an additional subwoofer option and the included sub seems inferior - typical seems to be 6". Based on these criteria, there were not a whole lot of options available - a soundbar with a sub pre-out and HDMI ARC to enable the one remote option. So I settled on the YAS-109. Through some trial and error I found that the best settings (along with the additional sub) were Clear voice On, TV mode, subwoofer set to -1 and bass ext off. Other than not being able to get very loud compared to my old soundbar, they do the job alright. I just watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 4k; turning it up all the way and during action scenes, it almost makes me feel like I'm at a theater. The soundbar didn't give out at high volume and remained crystal clear. If however, I move to the kitchen 20 feet away, I wish I could turn up the volume more. Max volume is just not loud enough. My older Vizio soundbar got much louder but did choke at high volume. Perhaps they capped it on purpose knowing full well that the small speakers would not be able to handle anything louder. For the cons, the soundbar's speakers are so tiny that the 'subwoofer' is just a marketing gimmick. If turning up the soundbar's subwoofer at all, it just cannot handle the bass and makes any speech drowned out & woofy. If anything they should have called them drivers. Just by adding an air port doesn't qualify them being called a subwoofer; subwoofer is misleading. The other huge con is the 3d surround option. It is just so laughably bad. No clue how that got greenlighted. Turning it on makes the sound 'appear' wider but it loses all bass and sounds tinny like the speakers within the TV itself. It would have been nice to have the same bass and sound response as without it- but just appear to sound wider; my old vizio soundbar from 2008 had this option and performed so much better in this regard. I also don't really get the sound profiles. Game, Movie and Music have an echo but TV doesn't. Really weird. I can't comment on the Alexa option because we already have another Alexa speaker close by and didn't want them competing so turned the mic off. I also did turn off the power save option so it wouldn't go to sleep. It does turn off when I turn the TV off which is nice. For the current options out there right now, this sound bar is OK. It does the job and fulfilled my criteria. Does it blow me away? lol no. It doesn't have any of the new tech like DTS X or Dolby Atmos but then again it cost a fraction of the price as the ones that do so I can't complain re that. I think a good price point for this speaker is ~$150; abouts what I paid for it. Wait for a sale or try to find it used - like new (damaged box or return but still new). Definitely not worth the $220 new it's going for now.

I bought this to use in a home gym with Spotify Connect for playing music. This seems to be the only under-$200 sound bar that supports Spotify Connect. This review is strictly about using the Spotify Connect functionality. The sound bar is simple and easy to set up, with just a power connection needed. You need to download the Yamaha Sound Bar app to update the firmware first and to connect to WiFi. Once that is done, you don't need the app anymore. Everything can be controlled from the Spotify app. Even the sound bar volume can be changed using a popup slider on the Spotify app (NOT the volume control of the phone). The sound bar stays on and is always available (does not power off or go to standby) which is what I wanted. It is available from any phone connected to the same WiFi network; the device automatically shows up as YAS 109 in the Spotify device list. You don't really need the remote once you do the initial setup, unless you want to change any advanced setting like subwoofer volume. The sound quality is excellent for a smaller area like a home gym, especially at this price point and without a separate subwoofer. Spotify Connect works perfectly without any glitches, and I'm very happy with the purchase.

UPDATE: The soundbar abruptly stopped passing the HDMI signal in the middle of a movie after two weeks of light use and the screen went black and the sound stopped. Switching the setup to HDMI ARC audio only did not solve the audio problem. Troubleshooting isolated the problem to the HDMI output hardware. Clearly a quality control issue. Very very disappointed in Yamaha. Will be returning this and will get a different system (Yamaha no more). INITIAL REVIEW: First understand my star rating: 5 stars for home theater sound, 1 star for music = 3 stars. Yamaha is a brand I have loved for over 30 years for their great products in the music world, so when I was looking for a soundbar which could deliver both great home theater sound AND also music, I was drawn to this soundbar. If you are looking for a home theater experience and don't want to hassle with multiple speakers, it does a pretty good job (great clarity, good but not overwhelming bass, nice reproduction across the range); the virtual surround feature was a bit lost in my large room, but I blame the space, not the bar for that, and it was still a nice auditory experience. Sadly, music reproduction from bluetooth streaming sources was poor, due to harsh and often distorted treble at the mid to upper ranges on most tracks (rock, jazz, classical, acoustic), including on vocals. This was at its worst when using the 3D surround feature, but was not fixed by using either the "music", or "stereo" modes provided, or by a firmware update. There is no other equalizer option. Both Amazon Music HD and Apple iTunes files had the same issue. In contrast, when I connected my vinyl phonograph (TEAC TN300, using its built in pre-amp (RCA out, using an inexpensive RCA to TOS-Link converter, so I could make use of the only other single port (optical) on the bar...HDMI is the main of course), it did not have this problem and actually sounded very nice. Go figure, but I am guessing it has to do with the reproduction of the compressed (and undoubtedly loudness adjusted) digital streaming files through this unit vs. the more natural dynamic range of the analogue to digital signal from the vinyl. A bit disappointed on this front, because my plans are to use it both for music and TV. I am probably expecting too much at this price point, considering the feature set provided, but I wanted more from my old friend Yamaha. I don't use Alexa, so I can't comment on that. Set up was straight forward using the enclosed quick start guide, with easy pairing of the wireless sub. The iPhone control app is pretty worthless, as it offers far fewer features that the small physical remote provided. I will probably keep the bar for now and rely mostly on my vinyl collection for music in that space; still, its too bad that streaming will not be a great option.

Bottom line before my review...buy it! We are currently using the Yamaha YAS-109 sound bar for dual purpose; outside and RV. Under our RV-Port I like to here music when outside working and this is an great option. It can stream music from our house WiFi or from music via bluetooth on my phone. Having ALEXA in the unit (works only with internet connection), it's nice to get updates, change the music selection all with voice control. Surprisingly, under a metal RV port 24' x 40' with 15' ceiling, there is no problem hearing the music clearly. I move it from RV port to Car port with the same results and fairly quick connection to our house internet for WiFi streaming after re-plugging it in to AC power; less than 1 minute. The second accomplishment for us was to obtain better sound quality in our Truck Camper from the HDTV and music source. We power the unit from our batteries and inverter when dry camping and always have great music now! Via a bluetooth device connected on the back of the DISH satellite receiver (optional from Amazon) the Yamaha sound bar connects for great sound wireless anywhere we are parked. You can also use the HDMI connection from the HDTV to the Sound Bar if you don't want to 'pair' wireless technology. Pairing does require a smart phone one-time to connect the unit to a voice/music source. So far, re-pairing has 'not' been necessary after power has been removed. Therefore, in our case, pair once and power up and listen to your source music or TV programming. Since 100% of our camper is powered off a 3000 watt inverter (back feed on all 120 vac outlets), we watch satellite TV and use Sirius XM music from DISH TV over the sound bar in the middle of no where! If you have a Sirius XM account (i.e. in your vehicle or house), you can connect ALEXA, set up via a CODE and stream Sirius XM programming from your house or other WiFi connection; no additional fees. All you need to do is say..."ALEXA, play the BLEND on Sirius XM" or "play the top play list on Amazon Music" and you're on your way! Instruction manual is not the greatest but should get you connected. This unit can also be purchased with a bass sub-woofer for house use. Oh, the unit can be mounted on a wall vertical (template included) or sit flat on a counter or entertainment center. In my RV case, I had to weld up brackets to hold on the rear-mounting screws and cradle the bottom due to the wall angle. Initially, I contacted Yamaha for a support question regarding ALEXA (couldn't reconnect), referred to 2nd level support which via email took over a week; Not Good! In the mean time, found out ALEXA has an ON/OFF button on the units control panel...make sure it's turned ON for 'voice' control. No, it's not a $1000+ BOSE surround system like we have in the house but it is a 'major' improvement for those that want something much smaller, affordable and still produce great sound. We are glad we selected this Yamaha Sound Bar and hope you do also! Update: 7 months later, works great!