The YAS-209 soundbar is Yamaha's first smart speaker of any kind, and since its release last year it has remained one of my favorite soundbars, period. Yamaha chose Amazon's Alexa for its voice control, and the YAS-209 performs well as a smart speaker and sounds excellent with music, TV and movies.

The Yamaha YAS-209 smart soundbar delivers excellent sound quality, whether it's playing music or movies, along with the convenience of Alexa.

The Yamaha YAS-209 offers excellent sound in a compact size; Amazon Alexa is useful and the mics work well in loud environments; The soundbar's implementation of DTS Virtual:X offers a rich surround effect; The subwoofer is more articulate and offers more headroom than the competing Polk soundbar.

There's no onscreen display and the LEDs on the top are too small to see from your chair.

This 'bar and sub combo is does exactly what it was designed to do: upgrade the sound of your TV. Surround sound isn't the aim of the game here, but for sonic superiority over your usual TV output it's a great option.

Expansive soundstage; Well-integrated bass; Attractive and understated; Good build quality; Simple to setup;

Lacks MusicCast; 2.1 config won't deliver true surround envelopment - no surprise at this price;

Yamaha’s YAS-207 blew away the crowd upon its 2017 debut, offering a heady mix of clear and balanced performance and more features than a $300 soundbar has any right to. That put it at the top of our best soundbars list, where it has remained for two years. For its follow-up, the YAS-209 (what dark fate the 208 met, we’ll never know), Yamaha has stuck with the 207 playbook, while also offering even more extras — including built-in Amazon Alexa — at a $50 markup. Frankly, the 207 is still a killer deal two years on, but a few more goodies doesn’t hurt the formula one bit, making the 209 another winner in Yamaha’s long list of value-packed bars. I’m not saying the YAS-209’s design is boring, but if you looked up the word “nondescript” in the dictionary, well, you’d find no pictures of it because dictionaries typically don’t have pictures, but you get the point. In any case, even more so than its predecessor, the 209 is virtually invisible beneath your TV, which Yamaha claims is just how ...

Clear, powerful sound; Multiple sound modes; Built-in Alexa; Wi-Fi and Spotify Connect;

No independent Alexa volume control;

The quality of sound is outstanding. I can hear the dialogue clearly and it's great when playing music videos. The sub-woofer is an absolute gem when there are sound effects. Also, it automatically goes on standby when the TV is turned off. The only thing I find not so good is that you can't visually see the level of volume when using the remote. Even still, this is a great quality sound bar that doesn't cost your an arm.

Fantastic sound bar that was easy to instal and get operating. Having Alexa installed in it was a bonus. Great product!

Only bought yesterday, but easy to connect and get functioning. ARC/CEC works great with Samsung TV. Bluetooth and wifi connectivity easy to set-up. Mobile App easy to install and set-up. The sub-woofer is what makes this unit stand-out against comparable priced sound bars. The 6 sound options are ok but lacking EQ customization to suit your own room. The "ClearVoice" option works amazingly well. No purchaser would be disappointed with this unit for the price. You'd probably need to spend double to find a soundbar/sub that sounded noticeably better.

Purchased recently to downsize and replace a wired home theater system and it throws out some pretty decent sound for the price and size. I am using it ARC mode and once 3D Surround and Clear Voice are activated, it's quite impressive the quality of sound including the bass. The bass is deep and punchy and is excellent for watching movies. I have not used a Dolby Atmos soundbar however, this system has a decent surround sound mode which does a good job filling the room.

Perfect for all forms of television. Easy to install, easy to use. Recommend to anyone wanting quality and value.