Design
The Yamaha YAS-106 is a single-unit soundbar and it is bulkier than most others. It's wide at the front if you wall-mount it. Yamaha also lets you place it flat on the table. The build is predominantly plastic but it is good quality material. There's no flexing whatsoever across the frame. The soundbar is covered with a sturdy fabric at the front with the plastic frame exposed on the sides as well as the back. There are bass ports exposed on either end of the soundbar. The fabric gives it a decent look, but it is likely to collect dirt over time. The fabric at the front has a plastic strip that runs from one end of the speaker to the other. This houses a bunch of status indicators for the various features. Although not the most impressive looking one, the Yamaha YAS-106 has a healthy mix of elegance and style.
The Yamaha YAS-106 spans 35 inches in width, just about as wide as a 42-inch TV. It's not very heavy either, weighing around 3.2kg. It has a wall-mounting provision at the back and even a reference guide printout so you can plan precisely where you want to place the soundbar. The remote control is wider than most but simpler than older models. The number of buttons are fewer, the layout cleaner and it doesn't take close to no time getting used to. It is powered by a conventional CR2025 battery.
Features
The Yamaha YAS-106 is a soundbar but it is powerful one. It's rated at an impressive 120W, that's split between two 30W channels and 60W on the subwoofer component. This makes it more powerful than most traditional 2.1 speakers. The speaker configuration is distributed across the front with a tweeter, a main driver and a woofer for each channel.
Connectivity is pretty well sorted as well. There is one HDMI input and one output, with ARC support. Using this, you can route audio through your Yamaha YAS-106 soundbar before passing it to the TV, or the other way around. You can also control the speaker using your TV remote as long as you use HDMI, all thanks to CEC support. Like ARC, your TV needs to support this CEC feature as well to work. There is Bluetooth support as well for mobile devices and laptops. For bit-perfect audio, there is a digital optical input and a traditional stereo audio jack for analog sources. There is a sub-woofer output if you feel the need for a dedicated bass unit.
4K and 3D pass-through are supported, so you won't need to worry about future-proofing. 4K and 3D content will stream through to your 4K or 3D TV without any issues. Decoding for all the prominent audio standards - Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Digital Surround are present too.
Yamaha has a few additional features, one of which lets you crank up the bass. It's called Bass Extended while another feature called Virtual Surround Sound increases the width of the sound-staging giving it a surround-like sound. The Clear Voice button should be interesting because it increases the volume of dialogues. This is a common problem with speakers especially, where you can’t hear voices at low volumes.
The remote control is really simple to use. There is a volume control for the speakers and another for the integrated subwoofer. Increasing the volume on the remote lights up all the indicators meant for the features, to display the current volume. The lights pan from one side to another as you increase or decrease the volume. If you think the lights are too bright, there is also a dimmer button to turn down the lights a level or turn them off entirely. This might be useful if you're watching a movie in the dark and don't want to be distracted.
If you want, you can even use a mobile app called Home Theater Controller that's present on Google Play Store and the Apple App store. The app lets you control the volume, change surround effects and power off the speaker. The interface isn't too great - it's too spaced out and the controls aren't intuitive. The buttons on the app interface for example, are too tiny and oddly placed, when it would've been simpler to just have a larger dial or slider. The physical remote is infinitely a more effective and simpler controller. The package also comes with an optical cable if you need it.
The Yamaha YAS-106 soundbar has everything going for it so far, but the performance is what matters at the end of the day. The larger format should mean larger drivers and hopefully, a great sound. Right away compared to other soundbars, the Yamaha YAS-106 stands out. It shines particularly for cleaner music that's more to do with vocals and instrumentals.
There is a lot of detail this speak throws out and a remarkably natural sounding tone too. The detail is clearest till about 70% of the volume range. This is a soundbar that sounds really good even at really low volumes and that is something you want in an every-day situation. No one wants to be always watching movies or listening to music with the volume cranked up to 100.
Dialogues are very clear when you're watching movies or TV. Its action movies where you may find the sound of explosions and blasts to be a little less than satisfactory. That's because the bass isn't spectacular, it isn't boomy like a dedicated woofer would be, but it is still pretty punchy. It does a better job than nearly all soundbars without a dedicated subwoofer. In this case, you also have the option to add a subwoofer to the mix.'
There are a couple of tones that you notice when you're playing with the various enhancements the Yamaha YAS-106 offers. Adding the Base Extended is not a good idea. It cranks up a large chunk of the bass losing a lot of necessary details. The Virtual Surround on the contrary has a nice sound to it, even if its music you're listening to. Soundbars typically suffer from sound-staging because of how close the two channels are placed to one another and not being able to move them further apart. The Virtual Surround tweaks the sound enough to make it feel more separated. It does take out a tiny bit of bass from the sound though.
The Bluetooth performance is impressive. We were able to walk 25 feet away and the Bluetooth stood strong with no signs of stuttering. The remote control works well too but it’s most effective when used facing the speaker.
Verdict
The Yamaha YAS-106 is not the cheapest soundbar by any means and it's certainly not the best Yamaha has to offer. It lies at the absolute bottom end of their product line-up with a demanding price of Rs. 19,990* but it’s still a really good purchase. The YAS-106 renders amazing sound, with very little distortion, a natural tone with the potential of being really loud when you demand it. If it's a soundbar you're going to listen to music on, something you want to channel all your sources to and you want detailed voice and detail, look no further than the Yamaha YAS-106.
Note: Prices subject to change. Please refer to the product catalog or stores for latest prices and details
Kindly let me know in which store yamaha yas106 soundbar available at Chennai.
You can consider the Yamaha YAS 107. It’s available to buy online at https://www.reliancedigital.in/yamaha-yas-107-2-channel-soundbar-with-wireless-subwoofer/p/491296123.
If you want to get the specific model at a store, you can get in touch with Customer Service at https://www.reliancedigital.in/content?page=contactus. They would be able to help you.