The construction quality of the YAS-408 soundbar is good. It is mainly made of plastic, except for the front side of the bar, which is covered with a metal grid. The submarine is made of wood and the only weakness of the configuration is the fabric that covers the speaker of the subwoofer, which can get dirty or damaged.
The Yamaha YAS-408 has a great frequency response. Its low-frequency extension is also decent, which will help recreate the deep fist, fist, and roar of movies and music for heavy bass. Its overall sound profile is also very neutral and accurate, which is suitable for a wide variety of music genres and other content.
The dynamic performance of the Yamaha Bar 400 is good. It can reach a good volume level that will be suitable for large rooms and crowded environments. However, there are a small number of remarkable compression artifacts when pushing the bar to its maximum capabilities. Most people won’t notice it with real-life.
Like the YAS-207, the Yamaha YAS-408 has poor sound enhancement features. Correction of the missing room, which means that this soundbar may look different depending on the room. There is also no automatic/nightly volume mode, so you cannot normalize the sound between content types such as a TV show and the sound level of a commercial. On the plus side, it supports a dialog enhancement feature to help you hear the dialog more clearly, even at lower volumes. You can also adjust the subwoofer level separately, ideal for adjusting the amount of bass the sub is producing. Although the bar has a 3D surround mode, the sound quality is not the best when used. It will be better to use the normal surround mode, which does not sound so bad.
Via HDMI ARC, Yamaha YAS-408 soundbar can play surround sounds encoded in Dolby Digital and DTS downmixed to 2.1. Dolby Digital is very common on platforms such as Netflix and Blu-ray discs. DTS, however, is not so common on its own, but rather as the recoil of the high-quality DTS-HD MA lossless surround format widely found on blu-rays. Unfortunately, object-based surround sound formats, such as Dolby Atmos or PCM 5.1 without data loss, are not supported.
The Yamaha YAS-408 has excellent audio playback suitable for most music genres and dialogue content such as podcasts and audiobooks. However, it has lower performance than pairing with surround channels and does not support height channels, resulting in a less immersive listening experience with movies. Unfortunately, its soundscape is not so wide, and the bar will mix surround content up to the stereo.
The audio playback of the Yamaha MusicCast Bar 400 is accurate, but some people may feel that it lacks some bass, especially in bass heavy content. Although its sound scenery is not very broad, it is well focused and does not seem too widespread. There isn’t much compression at a moderate volume, but when pushed to maximum volume, you can hear some pumping and compression artifacts in the bass range, especially in heavy bass genres. On the plus side, you can easily adjust the subwoofer level separately.
The Yamaha MusicCast Bar 400 has good overall audio playback, but doesn’t work well with surround channels. On the other hand, the soundscape is not so wide and has no height channels. All of this results in a less immersive listening experience. This 2.1 configuration will mix 5.1 content and won’t sound real like other settings, but virtual surround mode might help a bit. On the plus side, you have some features to customize your sound a bit to your liking, although you won’t have room correction.
The Yamaha YAS-408 has excellent audio playback suitable for most music genres and dialogue content such as podcasts and audiobooks. However, it has lower performance than pairing with surround channels and does not support height channels, resulting in a less immersive listening experience with movies. Unfortunately, its soundscape is not so wide, and the bar will mix surround content up to the stereo.
MusicCast BAR 400 (YAS-408) Specs: | ||
|---|---|---|
| General | Drivers | (Centre Unit) : Four 4.6 cm (1-3/4”) woofers, Dual 2.5 cm (1″) tweeters, (Subwoofer) : 16 cm (6-1/2”) cone woofer |
| Output Power | 200W total power: 100 W + 100 W subwoofer | |
| Power Consumption | (Centre Unit) : 30 W, (Subwoofer) : 19 W | |
| Standby Power Consumption | (Centre Unit) : 0.4 W (HDMI control, Network standby off), 0.5 W (HDMI control on, Network standby off), 1.9 W (HDMI control off, Network standby on), 2.1 W (HDMI control on, Network standby on), (Subwoofer): 1.3 W | |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | (Centre Unit) : 980 x 60 x 110.5 mm; 38-5/8” x 2-3/8” x 4-3/8”, (Subwoofer) : 180 x 417 x 405 mm; 7-1/8” x 16-3/8” x 16” | |
| Weight | (Centre Unit) : 2.7 kg; 6.0 lbs, (Subwoofer) : 9.4 kg; 21 lbs | |
| Input / Output | HDMI | 1 in / 1 out |
| Digital Optical | 1 in | |
| Analog Audio | 1 in | |
| HDMI | 4K Pass-through | Yes (50 / 60 Hz YCbCr=4:4:4, HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG and HDCP2.3) |
| 3D Pass-through | Yes | |
| ARC | Yes | |
| CEC | Yes | |
| Auto Lip-Sync | Yes | |
| Sound Technology | Surround Technology | DTS Virtual:X |
| Surround Mode | Music, TV programme, Movie, Sport, Game | |
| Compressed Music Enhancer | Yes (for Bluetooth®) | |
| Bass Extension | Yes | |
| Audio Formats | Dolby Digital | Yes |
| Dolby Pro Logic II | Yes | |
| DTS Digital Surround | Yes | |
| File Format | MP3 / WMA / MPEG-4 AAC: up to 48 kHz / 16-bit, ALAC: up to 96 kHz / 24-bit, FLAC / WAV / AIFF: up to 192 kHz / 24-bit | |
| Connectivity | Wireless Music Streaming | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes (2.4 / 5 GHz) | |
| MusicCast Surround | Yes | |
| AirPlay | Yes (AirPlay 2 via firmware update) | |
| Bluetooth Version/Profile | Ver. 4.2 + EDR / A2DP, AVRCP | |
| Bluetooth Maximum Communication Range | 10 m ; 33 ft | |
| Wireless Subwoofer | Yes | |
| Other Features | App Control | Yes |
| Learning Function | Yes | |
