Yamaha Audio YAS-209BL Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer, Bluetooth, and Alexa Voice Control Built-In,Black,36 x 2.5 x 4.25 inches

I was looking for a sound bar with Alexa built-in, which sounded good, but I didn't want to spend over $500. For this reason I give this one 5 stars. Set up was soooo easy... 30 minutes from the time I opened the box to when I was listening to TV and talking to Alexa. Yes, you have to download the Yamaha app to your phone so it can connect with your Amazon/Alexa account. The connection procedure was seamless and virtually effortless. Yamaha is a trusted brand for me. I have three Yamaha pianos/keyboards/synthesizers in my house, as well as a Yamaha subwoofer for my Polk Audio home theater setup. So I wasn't surprised when I opened the box and saw it contained the mother of all subwoofers, at least for a sound bar anyway. It was bigger than I expected!This unit replaced my old Amazon Echo speakers and subwoofer, and a Vizio sound bar (which, by the way, are also great sounding sound bars for the price but don't connect with Alexa). If there was a Vizio sound bar out there that had built-in Alexa, I would have bought that hands down, but there isn't, at least not that I'm aware of.The sound quality of this Yamaha sound bar was a step up from the Vizio, but I wouldn't say a leap. Remember, it was also under $500, like the Vizio. But this Yamaha with built-in Alexa was just what I was looking for. When you ask for Alexa, the TV sound automatically mutes, which I liked. It has various EQ and sound effect presets for TV programs, Movies, Sports, Gaming, and Music. Unfortunately, you cannot manually control bass, treble and midrange settings, which you could do with the Vizio, and verbally with the Amazon Echo, although you can set the subwoofer volume independently on this Yamaha. It also doesn't pair with my DirecTV remote, which my old Vizio did.Pros: Fast and easy set up / good sound / big, quality subwoofer / Seamless integration with Amazon Alexa and musicCons: Can't control bass, treble and midrange separately. Doesn't sync up with my TV or DirecTV remote.

I received this ATS-2090 soundbar from Yamaha in renewed condition. It arrived professionally repackaged, in custom formed protective styrofoam and each major component in a sealed plastic bag. The only piece which showed any evidence of prior use was one of the two power cords. The twist tie used to secure it was slightly distorted. No parts or documentation were missing.The firmware on the unit was out of date, but the sound bar automatically updated itself as soon as it was connected to my home WiFi network. I might comment that it (the soundbar) only supports 2.4GHz wireless networks. There is no 5GHz WiFi support. I had no problems installing the app on my iPhone, and I find the app easy to navigate and extremely useful.The sound quality is so much better than the built-in speakers on my bargain 40" flat panel TV. I knew the built-in speakers were bad, but after enjoying this sound bar it would be impossible to go back. I did adjust the bass level to +0 (it is set to +3 as a default) and I turned off the "bass extension" option using the app. With these adjustments, the bass from the wireless subwoofer integrates reasonably well and really accentuates most any TV program or movie soundtrack. I do have the wireless subwoofer located a few inches away from the wall, near a corner of the room, and just behind the TV itself.The actual connectivity took a little bit of experimentation. This is not a problem with the soundbar itself, but rather a consequence of the technology. My TV does not have an ARC capable HDMI connection. I am currently using the HDMI pass-through feature of the sound bar, and I have not connected the optical cable. My TV input comes only from an Android TV device, which streams content from a DLNA server, as well as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. The pass-through works perfectly for this application. It will still require a small learning curve for my family to become accustomed to turning the soundbar on prior to use, or perhaps I will need to defeat the auto power off feature (as described in the manual).I did experiment with the CEC settings on my TV to prevent devices from turning on or off unexpectedly, and I think I also needed to set the HDMI audio output setting on my Android device to PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS. This is all noted in the Yamaha documentation. Again, further trial & error with CEC settings may be helpful, as it would be nice if the sound bar faithfully turned on & off with the TV.I would definitely purchase this sound bar again, especially at the renewed price. I'm considering buying a second for the TV set in the rec room... can I run two of the wireless subs in the same household without problems? Highly recommended.(10/18 - edited for grammar and writing style)11/20 - Owned for over a month now. I’m still extremely pleased. There’s been no weird situations where “it just stopped working” or anything like that. Totally would buy again.