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Yamaha’s new MusicCast soundbar lets you add speakers for more immersive sound

Kris Wouk
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MusicCast has been around for a few years now, making it easy to add wireless multiroom audio to your home. In April, Yamaha extended the technology with MusicCast Surround, which lets you construct a partially wireless home theater surround sound system, piecing together different component to make a full setup. Now the company is expanding that line the new Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400, which lets you start with a soundbar and add components to extend it if and/or when you want to.

The MusicCast BAR 400 might be simple to use, but that doesn’t mean its feature set is lacking. The soundbar supports both Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Sound, and even supports DTS Virtual:X, giving you the immersion factor of object-based surround sound without needing to complicate your setup with additional speakers. The soundbar even surrounds high-resolution audio at sampling rates up to 192 kHz with 24-bit resolution.

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Connectivity options include a single HDMI input and AN HDMI output with Audio Return Channel (ARC), as well as analog and optical digital inputs. Of course, that’s only speaking of the wired inputs and outputs. The soundbar also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and as with every speaker in the MusicCast series, this wireless connectivity is where the real power of this soundbar lies.

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In addition to the MusicCast Surround functionality that allows you to expand on the soundbar’s speakers to create a full 5.1-channel surround setup, standard MusicCast lets you easily beam music to any other MusicCast-enabled devices in your home. The soundbar even features built-in support for a variety of music services including Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Tidal, and Napster.

If you can’t wait to get the Yamaha MusicCast BAR 400 into your home, fortunately, you don’t have too long to wait. The MusicCast BAR 400 will be available beginning in September and will retail for $500. The optional MusicCast 20 and MusicCast 50 speakers are available now, selling for $230 and $500, respectively. If you know you want a soundbar, but haven’t picked which one is best for you, be sure to take a look at our soundbar buying guide and our list of the best soundbars you can buy.

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