A. C. Bank Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Unimpressed, 2011-12-24
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
I am not impressed.Purchasing this product, I understand what a sound bar is. However, what they describe and promise is really not what you get. I live in a loft, and have a large living room. Reading the description you think this product will make your house sound amazing. However, what you get is something that looks like it should be worth 1/2 of the price. The system does not look like a solid build, and definitely not worth the cash your spending.My suggestion, either save the cash and get a less expensive sound bar or spend the money and buy something better.

dipeshnepal Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
a happy customer, 2011-12-17
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
It took me a while to find the right sound bar I am looking for and now here I am - delighted, satisfied and happy. I do not have big room to run cables and put speakers all over. I wanted quality sound while I listen to my music and movie and this did not disappoint me. It has all the features that I wanted - connect to iPod, FM, hook to Xbox, media player, Blue Ray player, TV what else I wanted? It looks great in my room.With all the sound bars you should know it will never come to sound that you get with 5/7 channels it's a fact, and you have make a choice. If you are confused go for it, you won't regret.

Lei Yu "Lei Yu" Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Best Choice for Small Room, 2011-11-19
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
I'm not an audiophile. I found this sound bar is very awesome for people don't live in a house. It has replaced my original PS3 soundbar. It is a very cheap one that supports the newest sound format DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. The reflective surface made this soundbar exceptionally beautiful. The virtual surround effect is not apparent, but its subwoofer has a port that allows you to connect surround speakers. In general, this soundbar could offer you a real home theater experience.

Lain Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
3D video pass-through does not work!, 2012-01-20
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Ok sound and the clear voice option works great. I was no longer asking my boyfriend "what did they just say?" every 10 mins. Sadly, the 3D video pass-through doesn't work with our ps3 & Panasonic ST 30 with HDMI 1.4 highspeed cables setup. We called tech support & they told us it should be plug & play, so we exchanged it hoping it was a defect. Unfortunately this was not the case. 3D works great when the ps3 is hooked directly to tv, but 3D signal dies when played through soundbar system. 2D menus and content work fine through the system, but soon as 3D signal kicks in, it fails to push through the 3D video and only audio comes through the sounbar.
Basically, if you don't plan to watch 3D, I'd rate it as 4stars (assuming you don't mind owning a product where not all functions work).

Jonathan Bass Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System, 1969-12-31
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
I had no idea that this kind of equipment existed. It is perfect for the bedroom. I didn't want the lousy aesthetics of a typical home theater with all the speakers and wires in the bedroom, and the room is smaller than the family room where we do have the full system. The Yamaha really fits the bill for me. It has much better sound than I expected. I had no experience with these sound bars, and was skeptical, but this really sounds good and is not intrusive. The remote is easy, too. I have a cable TV box, a Blue Ray player and an Apple TV hooked up to it with a Samsung 42" TV. I use the coaxial sound cable from the cable box to the receiver and the three video cables connected directly to the TV from the Cable box. The Blue Ray is connected by HDMI and the Apple TV is connected with an HDMI to the TV input for video and the optical audio cable for the sound. Simple to switch between the devices. My wife hates all the remote controls, but I haven't figured out how to put everything on one control. I am using all 5!

Michael S. Gossman "The Chef" Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System, 1969-12-31
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Purchased this even though there arent many reviews out there for it. I needed a sound bar/ surround solution to a small 10' X 10' room. I am using it with a 47" LED TV that i watch movies and do a little gaming on as well. I needed something that sounded like have a surround without the surrounds. Whats nice about this unit is that you have to the option to add surrounds if you like. Since most of my time is either watching a movie or playing PS3/Xbox 360. I decided not to hook up the surrounds. The set up in the room is TV on one wall and my chair on the other so unless i put the surrounds pointing inward i dont have many options. The bass is good and clear; not earth shaking but you can almost feel it. My sub/receiver is on a shelf right below the TV. The audio coming from the three channels is superior and comparable to other models in the 500 dollar range. The nice thing about this setup is the decoders meaning you dont have to have another receiver to decode Blu rays etc... which is awesome. I was also looking at the Harmon Kardon which is a little cheaper, better sub; but it plays in stereo only and doesnt decode anything. For the price i dont feel you can beat this unit. If you have any questions please respond and ill do my best to answer. All in all im very glad i made this purchase and have no regrets with this setup. I look forward to using it when i want some entertainment.

B. Sanger Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Think I've finally found a winner, 2012-01-10
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Have been using the YHT-S401BL for a couple of days now and initial impressions are, well, impressive. It sounds great - with all input sources - the HDMI switching is incredibly convenient, there are numerous input options (3 HDMI, analog R/W, digital toslink AND coax connections, not to mention the FM tuner), the hard-wired bass gives a good thumping and the speaker itself is outstanding, with a surprisingly small footprint to boot. The picture doesn't do the size of the sound bar justice quite frankly. All video source are relayed at their highest resolutions possible (1080p, 1080i and 720p sources), with no visible signal degredation at all. There are many more wires to connect than you might be expecting however, so be aware of that fact. All wiring from input sources run into the sub/receiver unit, which connects to the sound bar with a speaker cable that has six connections on each end. I have three HDMI cables (Blu-Ray, Roku, AppleTV) running into the receiver/sub, as well as a toslink (Xbox) and digital coax (FIOS STB). Then, one HDMI cable runs from the sub/receiver to the TV. (I decided to keep my video signals with the Xbox and FIOS separate because sometimes I like to game or watch TV while listening to music and that would not be possible running those video signals through the HDMI switcher on the sub/receiver, because then those are the active signals and it doesn't allow you to access audio from a different input while watching video on another. Hope that made sense.)The instruction manual is not always easy to comprehend, especially with regards to activating HDMI control. It claims to be CEC compliant, but I could not get that feature to work with my Samsung DLP, which is CEC compliant as well - and works fine with my Samsung Blu-Ray. I went through the directions several times and it just never worked. Could be because the TV is from 2008, when the HDMI CEC movement was in its infancy. Not a big deal, as I will eventually set up my Harmony to control everything. Besides, the included remote works extremely well and isn't that big. It's no problem keeping it nearby to adjust the volume or input when necessary.After my experience with the Boston Acoustics TVee Model 30 I'm not going to jump the gun just yet and anoint the S401BL the clear winner, but right now I see no reason why it won't be staying with us. It's a big step up from the entry level Yamaha and for my money, performs much better than the Yamaha DSP-2200, which I did not like at all. If you're on the fence, I'd say give it a shot.

S. Hamilton Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
WOW! Yamaha YHT-S401BL ROCKS, 2012-01-25
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
I currently have a Yamaha YSP-1000 and recently sold a Yamaha YSP-3000 and just purchased the Yamaha YHT-S401BL Blows them all away. After setting it up I was really impressed with the sound that comes from this little sound bar. I did consider a Bose Cinemate GS II but glad I went for the Yamaha. Voices are very clear, surround works and sounds great and good base and all can be tailored to your favorite listening. All connections are done via HDMI on the back of the Sub/receiver combo which eliminates all the cables attaching to the tv and hanging down from the tv which looks horrible. I would highly recommend the Yamaha YHT-S401BL

Osvaldo Nodarse "Ozzie" Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
Worth every penny!!!, 2011-12-14
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
After searching and reading all kind of reviews for about 2 weeks, I got confused and frustated in get a decent soundbar for my bedroom. I am a fan of the good quality sound and video. I didn't want to open holes in the walls to run the satelite speakers wires because my wife will kill me,so I decide to look for a good hardwire ( no wireless subwoofer) soundbar with a decent review. I was opening to any brands. I already have a powerfull and excellent YHT492UBL system in the living room connected to a 3D Blu-ray and a 55" LED 3D TV and HD channels from my provider, so I know about quality. Because this unit ( YHT 401BL) is new in the market and almost none review I was so scare, but I took the risk. Oh my lord!!! it's unbelivable the sounds. The projection of the expandable surround sound is very clear and realisty. The subwoofer is part of the receiver ( I was scare about this too), it's giving the perfect balance, clear of the BOOM sounds without distortions. I coonected it to a 42" LED 3D samgsum TV 7000 series and I feel so happy about it that here I am, writting a review. If you close your eyes like I did and get inside the room with the system on , you may think that you are listening the most expensive surround system in the market. I know is no cheap, but worth every penny. Buy it, you won't regrete it.

M. McCormack "Big Mac" Say: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
PRICEY...BUT NICE, 2012-01-24
This review is for: Yamaha YHT-S401BL Front Surround Home Theater System
I am running this bar speaker system without the four rear sattelite speakers required for 7.1 surround...so this is a quick review on just as is...what comes in the box. I really thought this set for the price...came with at least two rear speakers! I was wrong and thats my fault...although I have tweaked the receiver/subwoofer to every possible configuration...it does not sound as awesome as I would have expected for a $600.00 3 speaker system. Some may think that this is an unfair review since I am not utilizing the 5.1 or 7.1...but I say its unfair to pay for a surround-sound system that doesn't provide what is needed and ultimatley...incomplete! So for any of you who do not intened to go out and spend another $500.00+ for the rear channel speakers...I do not recommend you spending this kind of money for these speakers as you will be dissapointed. There are cheaper and complete surround systems by Sony that will suffice...However - I want to give Yamaha a chance and I do intend to eventually buy the rear speakers and set this up as it was meant to be heard...I will then come back and give a new review.Hope this helps...