The Yamaha YSP-2700 Soundbar – A New Benchmark?Categories: AV & Home Cinema

I have been writing about hi-fi and AV for a few years. When I first started doing so, I would have to explain – at great length – what a soundbar was whenever one came up. Now, they have become such a staple, I no longer need to do so. And they get better and better all the time.

Case and point…

The new Yamaha YSP-2700 Soundbar – a soundbar so advanced and refined, it’s being regarded as a new benchmark in the niche.

This sleek model replaces the hugely popular YSP-2500, a soundbar which really alerted us to just how huge the soundbar as a concept could be. We have sold over a hundred of them since its release, making it the most popular soundbar we’ve ever sold despite it being one of the most expensive. it was only a matter of time before Yamaha took something beautiful, and made it divine. And with that, you have the YSP-2700.

Much like its predecessor, this is not just any sound bar. It’s a sound projector that literally bounces sound around the room. While the YSp-2500 recreated a very realistic and highly absorbing 5.1 sound, the YSP-2700 takes it a step further… to 7.1.

“YSP-2700 creates beams of sound by combining the sound projector’s many speaker groups via digital signal processing and reflects them off the walls of the room, actually reproducing a realistic 7.1channel surround effect with the sound coming from the left and right and even from the rear. The listening area is expanded so you enjoy an extremely powerful, natural sense of presence unobtainable with virtual surround methods.” ~ Yamaha

It achieves this actual 7.1 sound projection with 16 2.9cm drivers which are fully adjustable to angle to sound according to the room. Everything is optimised for reflection, making this the most intense and vivid sound projection experience yet – all the while taking up no more space than the original YSP-2500, or any other soundbar with an additional sub.

… and yet, it sounds exactly like a system ten times the size *at a height of only 51mm, there’s no chance of any screen obscurity). And price. No, for a soundbar it’s not exactly cheap, but it’s a fraction of the cost of a full system. And it will sound just as good.Maybe even better!

Nowadays, thanks to the aforementioned popularity of the soundbar, new television sets often come with free soundbars. Which is better than the standard speakers, sure. But these are often (obviously) more “cost effective” models and not necessarily the best sounding. Sure, they’ll they’ll give you sound, but for a proper cost and space effective alternative to a full 5.1 speaker setup, you need a soundbar like this for that coveted, room-filling sound that works gorgeously with music, movies and everything in between. The new benchmark has arrived – and the bar has been set very (very!) high.

Want to take a look? Click here for the full (and very impressive) specs, and as always let us know if you want to come and experience it for yourself!