Yamaha YSP-4100 Review

Sound bars have now become as common as 5.1 channel surround sound home theatre systems. They basically need no introduction as a consumer knows what exactly he or she is going in for when they are in the market for a sound bar. But for those who are not in the know, a soundbar is a solution for a 5.1 channel speaker set, but has the incredible feature of being extremely compact with no clutter. This reduces those unnecessarily long cables snaking up the walls of one’s home to be attached to the rear channel speakers or for that matter even reducing the need to have a subwoofer as some of the models come with this inbuilt driver.

The meshing hides the 40 beam drivers

Yamaha has been one of the big brands manufacturing sound bars, for years now and they have been consistently delivering products that do not disappoint. The brand has launched a soundbar, called the YSP-4100, which offers a variety of features that do not essentially fall in this class of speakers. Terming their range of soundbars, ‘Digital Sound Projectors,’ the YSP-4100 boasts of features, such as HD audio decoding, AV receiver functionalities and a host of other attributes. Read on to know more about this high end offering from Yamaha.

Design and Build Quality
The design of the YSP-4100 is not that of a conventional sound bar, although it adopts similar styling. The reason we say that the soundbar is not like a conventional soundbar is because it is a lot larger than others and has features that are not usually found on most others. Usually, one would put this sort of a speaker system in front of the base of an HDTV, but with this model it is advised that it should be placed on a lower shelf, as it would block the bottom of the television’s screen. This soundbar is designed for televisions as large as 46 inches and it would complement those TV sets well. If one has a larger TV, say a 55-inch model, then the YSP-5100 would be more suitable. At first, this digital sound projector appears stylish and looks like it can deliver the performance that is expected of it.

Connectivity options at the back

The soundbar measures 1030 x 212 x 90mm and is quite heavy weighing at approximately 10 kgs. A majority of its front side features a meshing that covers the forty 4cm drivers and two 11cm subwoofers. The bottom part of this speaker set features a black glossy panel where the matrix LCD display is located. On this display, one can easily view which input mode they are in and other options available on offer. The controls are located at the front and these buttons for them look rich and well designed. There are a number of connectivity options located at the back, making it a lot more than just a mere soundbar. It is very sturdy and even if accidentally dropped, it looks like it will sustain it.

The bundled-up remote control that comes along with the soundbar looks futuristic and its neat design allows for easy handling, without it giving away the impression of being bulky, even though it is on the larger side. Rounding up this bit of the review, the Yamaha YSP-4100 is a good looking speaker set, though quite bulky.

Features
When it comes to the features of the Yamaha YSP-4100, the list lasts a lot longer than many other soundbars that are available in the market. However, it did lack a few needed features that are found in sound bars that are priced a lot cheaper. For one, it does not come with a separate sub woofer. Many brands that manufacture sound bars add a sub woofer as part of the package. Another thing missing here is the lack of any HDMI cables which have been truly useful for the consumer opting for this speaker.

Controls line-up at the front

So starting off the features and moving away from the two negative points mentioned above, the most notable attribute is that on the face of the speaker set there are an array of audio drivers. Unlike most sound bars, there are a total of forty drivers lined up here, which help in providing surround sound experience. These drivers fire at 2W each giving it a total of 80 Watts. Combine this with the two subwoofers that fire at 20W each and we get a total of 120W of power output here.