Yamaha YAS-203 Sound Bar with Bluetooth and Wireless Subwoofer

Product Specifications

• Length & Power Output: 34.9-inch 200 W (7.1 channels) – ideal for 40-inch and larger TVs
• Subwoofer: Wireless
• Connectivity: Wired, bluetooth
• Wall Mountable: Yes; Remote Included: Yes

• Inputs: 1 optical, 1 coaxial

  Product Description

Make all of your movies and TV shows come to life with clear, spacious sound. The piano-black finish of the sound bar looks great with your TV and the wireless subwoofer can be placed anywhere in the room to deliver rich, impactful bass. Bluetooth lets you wirelessly stream music from your iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Product Reviews

Great system (if you have appropriate expectations about soundbars) but could use HDMI control

After reading lots of reviews on inexpensive sound bars I decided to go with this system, which has received universal acclaim. I think if you have appropriate expectations, you will find this to be a great system.quick version: It sounds as good as you could expect for a system of this price. No soundbar, including really expensive ones, is going to be better than even the cheapest brand name “home theatre in a box” when it comes to filling a room with directionalized sound. I would have given this system 5 stars if it had HDMI control. Also, if you’re concerned about dolby, you should figure out if your television set sends the original audio signal out or one that has been converted to 2 channel. If your set does the latter, you should plug it directly into the media source if possible.Full versionFirst impressions:Product is packaged nicely. The gloss finish on the main speaker seems like a fingerprint magnet (which is ok, you probably won’t be touching it much) and also makes it feel kind of cheap. Well it is relatively cheap on the price scale, so no hard feelings there. Comes with everything you need to get started.Setup:Physically setting up the system wasn’t difficult at all. Simply set the main speaker where you want it and plug the optical cable (it comes with one) into your source - in my case the television itself. The subwoofer is wireless but needs a power source of course. I have mine just to the side with the cable box, but bass isn’t really directional, so you could put it wherever you think is most convenient. I will say that the main speaker cord could be longer.When I turned on the system, the subwoofer connected automatically without any issue. I had to wade through some TV menus to turn off the set speakers and route the audio to the soundbar. Obviously the ease of that depends on your TV. My set allows the unfiltered multi-channel signal to pass through, which the speakers will attempt to recreate (more on that later). Once I was getting sound, I had to turn my focus to remote controls. Probably the only major downside of this soundbar is that it doesn’t use HDMI control. Instead, you train it to respond to the same signals as your TV remote. The training was easy enough - you start the sequence and then press the appropriate buttons to program - but it makes for some needlessly annoying moments at times- If I don’t have the TV remote pointed at the right angle it might “miss” one or the other, resulting in me having to walk up there and manually turn on one or the other. It also renders the cable box remote useless for this purpose; I think the burst it sends to the TV is too short to capture both the TV and the soundbar reliably- Anytime I change the volume I get a message from the TV that “the volume is fixed.” (Of course it is, I turned off the speakers). But with HDMI control you could actually get visual feedback on the TV as to your volume level.Operation:Assuming you got your remote programming sorted out, it’s pretty easy to use. Instead of a slick-looking LED screen, all your information is given by a few status lights in the front. A quick look at the manual can orient you as to what they mean. It’s not very complicated. The remote allows you to adjust the volume and bass level. Basically I just cranked up the bass level and put the remote away in a drawer. There are some other more advanced audio profile settings you can play with, but you need to download an app to your phone and connect to Bluetooth - another downside, though I’m sure in the end, it gives you more options than you would find in competing products.Sound:On most flat panel TVs, the speakers are in the rear and pointed down. Also the drivers have to be pretty flat to fit inside the screen. In other words, you have laptop speakers which are pointed backwards. If you’re expecting this soundbar to replace even your $300 home theater in a box, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Instead, it’s more like someone took some small speakers, spaced them apart, and pointed them in the right direction + added a subwoofer - all this without the hassle of an extra amplifier or superfluous wiring. But that is not an indictment of this product, it’s just a simple fact when it comes to soundbars. You can’t expect it to be as loud and you can’t expect comparable directionality. Yamaha claims that the subtle convex shape helps the bar to “throw” sound towards the corner to recreate a surround effect, but this will be a mostly untrue claim if you have an open floorplan. Overall, it makes the speech clearer and adds some much needed bass and depth. You could spend a lot more money on a higher-end soundbar, but at that point, I would say you are better off getting an actual 5.1 or 7.1 system

Great product, a few minor complaints

I tried the sharp sb602 before i got this. Many reviews i read stated that the yamaha sounded better. I agree, the treble is a lot smoother on the yamaha. Its almost ear piercing on the sharp, however, the sharp was much louder in general. The bass was also much more powerful on the sharp. I wish this system was louder, but it produces a more pleasant sound experience. Good job Yamaha

The sound is good for tv and for music

We are liking this speaker bar so far, and are having no major issues with it. Occaisionally we have to manual un-pair one device before pairing another with the bluetooth, but that seems to be more of an issue with the device than the speaker. The sound is good for tv and for music.

Great for the money

Installed in my outdoor bar and pool deck in a covered space. I am very impressed with the expansive sound and ability to fill the space with TV and music. You would have to be a true sound enthusiast to find fault with this product. I am a novice, but I have a very high end home theater room to compare it to. It’s not in the same league but I appreciate good sound and am happy so far.

Very nice sound. Very happy.

I REALLY like this. Hooked to Lenovo ThinkPad P70 through Creative X-fi external sound card. Just fits under the monitor on my desktop. Excelent sound and very nice for conference calls on Gotomeeting, Webex or skype.

Very Happy

Easiest setup I have ever done. Paired automatically with the subwoofer. Was able to do the steps (easily) to allow the dish network remote to control the soundbar, so it now controls on/off, mute, and volume up and down.Sound is great, family loves it. When watching normal network programs the sound is very clear on the dialogue. When you are watching a movie, it obviously has the capabilities of producing quality sounds there as well.I’m not an audiophile, I just wanted really good sound out of a system that would actually pair up and run off the one remote, and still have the abilities to make movies sound great without compromising on regular TV which we watch 90% of the time.Replaced a home theatre system when the DVD player locked up, lost all of my sounds capabilities as well, so going the component route here seemed like a better solution.

This Yamaha soundbar is better than expected

The sound from this unit is remarkably good - much better than I expected, especially for the price. My other soundbar of choice as another Yamaha unit but it was priced over $1500. So yea for a fifth of the cost my YAS-203 soundbar is a bargain.The bass from the subwoofer is delightfully full and fills the room. As an active sub-woofer, the volume level can be adjusted to match your personal tastes; the adjustment is easy to do from the remote control.The high-notes aren’t as crisp as I would like - but still acceptable.Despite only having the soundbar and sub-woofer as the sound output, I was pleasantly surprised that this unit actually delivered on surroundsound. While watching a movie a plane on the screen appears to be flying from the back of the room - and the soundbar generated the sound-image precisely. Yea that was surprising - I get surround sound without the clutter of the additional speakers. I also have a 7.1 surround system for comparison and this new soundbar replaced my aging 5.1 system.The downside of the unit is that it doesn’t provide the user (us) any permanent visual confirmation when several features are enabled/disabled. So when I enable the “uni-volume” feature - to keep the volume at the same level when a program goes to commercial - the unit initially flashes it’s LED lights and then returns to displaying it normal set of LED lights. There’s no LED light letting you know that your feature is enabled/disabled. The same negative goes for the “clear-voice” feature. Unfortunately, in my setup, neither of the two aforementioned features work very well.In spite of the minor negatives, I really find this soundbar to be very good.

Great sound and easy set up.

Great sound and easy set up. Purchased for my condo and I put it right under my 65” TV. The sound is amazing for such a small soundbar.

One Star

missing parts

Five Stars

Stop looking, buy this!

Three Stars

Subpar sound quality for the price. Definetly not what I was expecting.

DJ approved

Best purchase I made for music/movies in a long time. However only bedroom tested but I don’t see how it would lose steam in a family room setting (since I like it loud).

… much more it really enhances my tv sound a great deal!

It really met my expectations and so much more it really enhances my tv sound a great deal !! I will try a movie real soon

One Star

Sounds like a tin can

Four Stars

We are very satisfied with our sound bar.

Five Stars

Great sound! Great for music as well.

Works well for movies. It really helps with the …

Works well for movies. It really helps with the sound including the voice of actors. Doesn’t get loud for music. Just not enough umph

Good simplicity, Great Audio

Easy setup and hook-ups. While the HDMI passthru would have been nice, not required. Sound is great out of the box, and the sub sounds great and with quite a bit of…

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