YAMAHAAudio SR-B20A Sound Bar with Built-in Subwoofers and Bluetooth, Black

Using this for watching motorcycle races on my monitor and for playing computer games, plus occasional music. Out of the box everything worked perfectly, set-up is very easy including Bluetooth, and although I did scan the instructions the truth is it’s pretty obvious what buttons do what. Has a nice little remote control (battery included). I have mine connected to my computer via Bluetooth - just turn on the soundbar, go to your computer settings screen, select “bluetooth” and click on the Yamaha option. Easy as pie. Except that I’ve never made a pie and would probably find it quite difficult. So ignore my dearth of baking talent and let’s move on, shall we?Sound is good! Considering the size and price ($129 on sale) it’s excellent! The 3D sound feature actually works and I can say I’ve never noticed such features work ever before on anything else. Somehow it fools my ears to believe sound is coming from far off to the sides…I like it. My main desire for any sound system is bass, though, and I bought this specifically because folks said it had good bass. The sound, not the fish. To keep you in suspenders (ha!) one minute longer, the mids and highs are great - clear, clean, quality you’d expect from the tuning fork people - and it does not sound like the vast majority of Bluetooth speakers, even expensive name brands, which I find always sound muted and/or hollow. Even big name BT speakers always sound pretty poor, in my arrogant opinion. Not this one. This sounds like it’s a real soundbar and just happens to be operating over BT. On the same vein, even the bigger BT speakers that claim to be bass monsters leave me underwhelmed. Disappointed. Aggrieved. Other words that mean ‘let down because no boom-boom good’. So how about this here Yammy-haw? Surprisingly good! That’s correct! Initially I was mildly okay with it as I played Teach Me How to Dougie; that’s my go-to bass comparison song because (a) it has very deep bass, (b) I like the song, and (c) there is no C. It was never going to shake the walls but it provided a little vibration to the desktop on which the soundbar rested. Eh. Turned on and off the Bass Extend button a few times, feeling a bit disappointed once again but blaming myself for having hope to begin with. Then I looked at the remote and paused momentarily. There in rubberized glory is a volume button for subwoofer!?! I increased the sub. It helped. I did it more. It helped more. I pushed that button till I knew it could hold no more, and hallelujah the bass came alive!!! It’s still a small soundbar with small speakers, but it made me soooo happy to actually get the desk to jiggle and to feel just a little salving bass massaging my soul! It will never replace a really, really good sound system. I have Sonos surround for the big TV which makes the house shake, but for playing Call of Duty or StarCraft or watching MotoGP racing this is way better than merely adequate. It’s enjoyable! And the surround feature thing is kinda like icing on the cake, although who eats cake without icing anyway? Seriously. Even muffins and cupcakes get icing. Iiiiiiiiicing….Anyway, happy? YES! Long-winded? Also yes! Will you be happy with it? How would I know? But if you don’t require the windows to rattle while watching TV, or if you’re not in a financial place to buy a massive surround sound system, or if you just want decent noises for your computer games, this is definitely great sound for the price point. Best I have ever heard for the price, and I have a LOT of disappointing speakers cluttering up drawers and cupboards to base that from. I also ended that defense with a preposition. Dad would be so annoyed. He thought he taught me better.Quit reading this and go buy the soundbar already!

I have an 82” LG smart TV (it’s 6 feet wide). It has great pictures but not so great sound with the internal speakers. I wanted the sound bar to operate seamlessly with just the TV remote because my wife is not good with complicated set ups. I use the HDMI ARC Jack to connect to the sound bar and set the TV sound to HDMI ARC and it works seamlessly with the TV remote. The set also has a single optical output and I use a an optical splitter/repeater to connect to the optical “TV” input jack on the sound bar and to my home stereo.When I watch movies I select optical out on the TV set and the sound bar automatically switches to the optical input as the HDMI ARC is dead then (my TV doesn’t allow both HDMI ARC and optical audio output at the same time). I turn on the stereo and select the optical output from the TV. My stereo and the speaker bar are in perfect phase (no out of phase echo on dialog) and the speaker bar effectively acts as the center speaker.I wouldn’t say the speaker bar by itself is a great music speaker system, though it’s probably considerably better than no external speaker and listening to your iPhone or iPad. It has a reasonable low end response, but does not have a true thumping bass response. It’s a matter of physics - It’s very hard to get good base out of a speaker so thin. But it does a good job for ordinary use. And in conjunction with an external good quality stereo is an excellent center speaker.I urge you to look up the Yamaha App for your smart phone or tablet. It gives you feedback of the settings and a way to adjust the things. Using the remote works but interpreting the over-simplified built in status lights is a pain. But the Yamaha App solves that. Be aware that there is more than one in App Store but only this one works with this sound bar. (See the screenshot).The good:(1) Works well as a speaker bar seamlessly controlled by the TV remote when connected to the HDMI ARC of the TV. Better sound than the original TV speakers.(2) Works very well as a center channel audio speaker when using an external stereo with both the sound bar and the stereo fed from the TV’s optical output.(3) The App let’s you see and control the should bar settings.(4) Automatically selects the correct input HDMI ARC or TV optical based on which is active from the TV.Room for improvement:(1) An optical pass-through output would be appreciated for use by an external stereo when using the sound bar as a center speaker.Note: If you observe audio sync problems (lips out of sync with audio) go to the TV’s audio set up. My TV has an option for adjusting the video to audio sync. It’s not the fault of the sound bar and it’s correctable.Update:I originally mentioned that the sound bar automatically selects between the HDMI ARC input and Optical TV input depending on which has a signal. It does not always and consistently do that. I changed the hook up so that I use the separate dedicated optical input for the optical input from the TV and manually select the “Optical Input” when I am running on the optical sound output from the TV. (Only necessary because my TV does not have a mode that allows using both the optical output and the HDMI ARC outputs simultaneously.) This did not affect my rating of the sound bar.By the way the primary reason for using the optical input is that it allows me to use my existing high end stereo for movie sound (via optical input) and the sound bar as the center speaker. Also using optical for both the sound bar and the stereo makes the sound bar perfectly in phase with the stereo - No echos or distortions.

This is a good replacement for your TV speakers. Keep in mind it is not surround sound. it does have built in sub woofer speakers, 3 inch, you will not hear booming, rattle the windows bass, but, it does help. Two points that kept it from receiving 5 stars, when you change volume the display on my Samsung TV, it will show you are changing the volume, however no numbers are displayed. You can see the volume numbers in the app, but that means you have to grab your phone. The second one is if you are placing the bar on a TV stand the speakers face up, not toward you. If you are mounting it on a wall the speakers would face you. I was able to mount mine behind my TV on the TV legs so the speakers face forward. The remote is basic, for me it is not needed for volume control since my TV remote works with the soundbar. For the bar to sync with your TV you need an ARC, eARC HDMI or an optical port on the TV. If you are using the ARC or eARC HDMI port on the TV you need to buy or have an ARC or eARC HDMI cable. An optical cable is supplied with the speaker.Bottom Line:Price for what this soundbar is, not bad.Sound is goodSetup was easy, Plug and Play (Samsung TV)Volume numbers not displaying on the TV screen and the speakers location in the soundbar could be an issue for some.