Yamaha YAS-101 - Page 2

Thinking about pulling the trigger on this one.
What's the return policy of this dailysteals website?
Anybody know?

Look here
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1383231

I'm still undecided on getting this one or the sony CT550, there is quite a price difference here, but the sony of course has a dedicated wireless sub.

the yamaha here is 220 and the sony is 370. Anyone else here who was thorn between these two as well?

I think if you're torn between the 550 and the YAS-101, you may want the 550 or a higher end Yamaha. They sell some really expensive sound bars (and I think invented the idea of such a device?) but the 101 is their entry-level and the comparable bar from Sony may be their CT150.



Sorry I did not respond sooner. That was a daily deal that's already over with. All I know of their return policy is what their website says - http://www.dailysteals.com/faq/

"What's your return policy?
Well, each individual case has it's own individual answer. We need to determine whether that Bluetooth that you bought really did turn into a toe nipping yak, or if it was just a figment of you over-active imagination. So if you would just be so kind as to contact Sales with your user ID, order number and the problem that you are experiencing our customer service representatives will be glad to help you out...or give you a full psychiatric evaluation, which ever you need."

I saw they had a lot of negative feedback on their eBay page and a few negative comments on YouTube, but I went ahead with the order, intrigued/amused as I was by their advertizing, website and low price... We'll see. I actually kind of wish I'd just ordered direct from Yamaha. Like Sony, their prices are about the same as retail sites, even Amazon.

Thanks for your fast reply, they do not sell the ct150 here however and the higher end Yamaha models are far more expensive than the ct550.

One thing I was wondering though: is it correct that I cannot hook my iPhone/iPod up to the Yas-101?

Yes there is no way to plug in an Ipod (that I have found anyway).

Daily Steals just issued me a refund for some reason. Said there was a problem with my order. Oh well, probably I won't be getting this item.

Me too. They've had a history of that happening, now and then.

Wish I could buy one for that price.

Have mine now but not had chance to give it a real trail but should be able to tomorrow. Sounds is definitely better than TV. Had to tunr the base down for normal listening.

Will find way to secure the unit onto the cabinet tomorrow as well, might be able to use the screw holes in the feet just in case the unit gets knocked as the feet are close to the sides.

So Szhjcn, What are your thoughts on the 101?

I like it. Not had chance to give it a blast but the sound is many time better than the built in speakers. Had to turn the base down. Also like that it can be turned on with the TV.

Have not tried the surround effect... just turned on the clear voice. As I have a full blown Cinema room don't need this to be a cinema sound system.

I used the holes on the feet for the screws to mount the speaker on our stand using a couple of dowels. As the feet were just 1.5cm from the edge and I was worried it might get knocked off.

Hi,

Watched a movie last night with the sound cranked up for the first time last night and was quite impressed. Loud and clear sound with plenty of bass, far better than the TV speakers.

Obviously not comparable to my Cinema room with B&W 600's and Onkyo 900 amp...

Working from home today so decided to hookup the satellite receiver directly to the Soundbar. Currently listening to PlanetRock from UK satellite. Fine for back ground listening but not so good if you crank it up.

So once again for the purpose I am using it for, it's great. If I want to crank it up (and use more electrical power) I could turn on the main stereo which is also hooked up to the satellite.

Edit & btw: the main reason for deciding to look into a sound bar was for an inlaw who is hard of hearing and with the TV's down-firing speaker (Samsung) the volume had to be cranked up which was too loud for our son to sleep. The sound bar seems to have solved this problem, I guess as the sound is a lot more directional toward the listeners.

I recently purchased the YAS-101 from BB but saw the ATS-1010 at Costco today for about $60 dollars cheaper. The specs for the two items appear identical. Is there any difference between these two units and, if not, why does Yamaha market the same item under two different product numbers?

Well, per Yamaha technical support, the devices are identical. The different numbers were at the request of certain retailers. Went to BB and showed them this information and they promptly issued me a $60 refund.
I really like this sound bar. For day to day TV watching, it has a great sound. It syncs well with my Sharp LCD screen, has an RF pass-through, can adjust for audio lag, etc. For movies, of course, I turn on my 5.1 system but otherwise I am very satisfied with the YAS-101.

I purchased a new television and thought it was time to upgrade my very old 5.1 system, but I did not want all the wires all over, but regardless I did purchase the Yamaha 671 - powerhouse of an AV receiver. Tried it with my older speakers and the sound was good. With the new receiver I purchased a new powered subwoofer which worked "ok" with the new receiver. After about 2 weeks of trying things out and being happy (not ecstatic) about the sound, I began looking at and reviewing sound bars, not necessarily for better sound, but for simplicity - feeling the 671 was "too much" for my use.

After looking and deciding that none of the sound bars sounded good (IMO), I pretty much gave up on the idea.....until......

I was walking through Costco and say the YAS 1010 on display and tried it out ans was very impressed witht he sound.....and it was only 189.00 compared to the cost of the Yamaha 671......but I left without it. I went back with my wife and showed her and she said it sounded great.....so I bought it thinking I'd return it if it did not work out. Brought it home and set it up in about 10 minutes. Programed my remote without any difficulty and then tried it out.....sound was very good. My wife says it actually sounded better.

I then hooked up the powered subwoofer to and threw a movie in the dvd player and all I can say is WOW....this thing sounded GREAT! I actually got more sound out of the sub-woofer and the separation was very very good.

I wrapped up the Yamaha 671 and brought it back last night. I know the YAS 1010 is not a true 5.1/7.1 but it sounds great to me and my wife, better than the 671 did. The 671 was a bit complicated for me and possibly I did not have it configured properly, but none the less, the sound bar is FANTASTIC!

Only drawback is I wish it had 2 more optical inputs to it, but that is not a deal breaker, I'll work something out.

Looks good, sounds great, one remote and a happy guy here! 189.00 is allot better than 459.00 and sounds GREAT!

Ziggidy,
If you need more optical inputs, consider an optical switcher that has a remote. Very easy to install and use. A web search will yield a number of choices.

Are people still finding this soundbar at Coscto? I did not see it at my local store and I don't see it on their website.

I saw it at Costco last week and some walmarts also stock under same number @199$
Walmart website will indicate closest store that carries this item.

It is still at my local Costco as well.

Is this soundbar any good? Would it be better than a Mitsubishi projection TV's built-in speakers? The low price is attractive for sure, but when I went onto the Costco website is not listed. Is it a matter of calling local stores?

1. Yes, its any good.
2. Yes, it would be much better than any sets built in speakers.
3. Buy locally, or Amazon is your friend.

Cheers

I have sound bar questions related to connecting one to my new Vizio M370SL TV (exquisite picture, poor sound!). I assumed (silly me!) that connecting a sound bar with an optical cable would allow me to control the sound bar volume using the TV's remote. I was wrong, at least for a Philips CSS2123/F7 sound bar (which also sounded fairly lousy and will go back tomorrow). Further research shows the YAS-101 (Costco AST-1010) can learn a TV's remote, so that is good.

Q1: Does anyone know if the AST-1010 can learn a **Vizio M370SL's remote** to control the volume? I do not know if there are certain ones it cannot learn.

Q2: Looking at the back, it has two optical inputs, one labeled "TV" and another labeled "BD/DVD." Does it matter what the source is for the second input? I want to connect a Win 7 Media Center computer (with Hauppage cards and motherboard optical output) that has HDMI for the video but for some reason won't control the sound with the Hauppage Media Center remote. If I can connect to the second optical port, that solves that problem. The odd thing is that it DID work with my old Toshiba 30HF85 for video and sound. Maybe it's the HDMI cable.

Q3: If it can learn my M370SL's remote, will it turn on/off when I turn on/off the TV?

Q4: Can it learn more than one TV remote? I am thinking I may need to have it learn the Hauppage media center remote.

That is all I can think of for now. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Gregg

You can definitely program this soundbar to learn the on/off, volume up and volume down functions of your TV remote. It then uses the IR signal from the TV remote to turn itself on or off and change the volume. Turning on the TV with the TV remote will simultaneously turn on the soundbar. For the volume, you want the TV remote to only control the soundbar so you will need to turn the internal TV speakers off (most new TVs allow you to turn off the internal speakers in the setup menu).

I don't know if the Yamaha can learn from all TV remotes, but my guess is that most types of IR signals can be learned. It can only store one set of functions (i.e, one TV remote), though.

The unit should accept standard optical and coaxial signals regardless of the source (it has two optical and one coaxial input).
Edited by Raym1234 - 7/7/12 at 3:22am

Cool. Thank you for confirming that information. I will grab one today. My TV can turn off its internal speakers, too.

Can this soundbar be set to automatically turn on? The reason I'm asking is because I'd like to hook up an apple TV to it via optical cable. It would be awesome if I can send audio to the apple tv and have the soundbar sense the signal and automatically turn on when the music starts playing.

To switch inputs you will need to use the Yamaha's remote. If you must have automatic switching, you can purchase a separate switcher that has that feature from Amazon. Plug all your inputs into the switcher and plug the output from the switcher into the TV input on the Yamaha. For me, though, pressing the Yamaha remote to switch inputs is not a big hassle.

By the way, the Yamaha comes with some other features I've found useful, such as "Surround Sound Extreme" (which actually works reasonably well), automatic volume leveling (for those loud commercials or when switching between inputs), and a "clear voice" feature. Check out the manual on the Yamaha website. These options can be turned on or off as desired.

Answering the questions I asked, now that everything is installed:

Q1: Does anyone know if the AST-1010 can learn a **Vizio M370SL's remote** to control the volume?
A1: YES.

Q2: Looking at the back, it (AST-1010) has two optical inputs, one labeled "TV" and another labeled "BD/DVD." Does it matter what the source is for the second input? I want to connect a Win 7 Media Center computer (with Hauppage cards and motherboard optical output) that has HDMI for the video but for some reason won't control the sound with the Hauppage Media Center remote. If I can connect to the second optical port, that solves that problem. The odd thing is that it DID work with my old Toshiba 30HF85 for video and sound. Maybe it's the HDMI cable.

A2: Using the second optical port was a pain because I had to keep using the Yamaha remote to switch the inputs. So I disconnected it and used HMDI for sound again. A combination of using 24 bit 44100 Hz audio (found in an extensive Google search) and/or using the latest High Def Audio drivers from Realtek rather than Gigabyte gave me back my volume control of the TV/Yamaha using the Hauppage WMC remote control.

Q3: If it can learn my M370SL's remote, will it turn on/off when I turn on/off the TV?
A3: Yes. Although it sometimes gets confused and turns one on and the other off, which is fixed by using either remote to sync them. Then it works fine again.
Edited by IWantMyHDTV! - 7/12/12 at 10:19pm

I've owned this unit for about 5 months now. I have a dedicated home theater so this was never intended to be used for watching movies. However, it is connected to a 40 inch Sony lcd flat panel that I use for tv watching, though I have watched a few movies using the sound bar. It is certainly better than the built-in speakers, but the 7.1 surround sound claims by Yamaha are suspect. The low end will not blow off your socks by any means, but does a reasonable job considering the size of the unit. I would recommend it for anyone using it the way I do, but I really think Yamaha should have second thoughts about those 7.1 claims. It is just not true.

Not that familiar with this product..........for it to function as above, should it be connected via optical inut?