A new development for Yamaha’s MusicCast wireless and multiroom streaming
platform is ‘MusicCast Surround’. This allows you to use other MusicCast
speakers either temporarily or permanently as rear speakers, thereby delivering
a true surround sound. Currently you can use either two MusicCast 20
speakers (as pictured below left, with the bar), or a single MusicCast 50
(below right) which would be positioned directly behind the listener, using
its stereo speakers to produce rear left and right channels. We’ve tried
both options, and the twin MusicCast 20s give best results for spread of
sound and for multiple listeners, but the one MusicCast 50 speaker
works well behind a single listener. MusicCast Surround has perhaps
its best advantage as a temporary
set-up, because then you can use the
two MusicCast 20s, say, as stand-
alone wireless multiroom speakers
in other rooms for most of the time,
but if you’re having a special movie
night, just move them into their
rear positions in the lounge and it’s
simplicity itself (a matter of seconds)
to reassign them within the app as rears.
Once the movie is over, you just press
‘release speakers’ and they’ll return to
duty as standalone wireless speakers in
those other rooms. It’s double functionality
— real surround when you want it, wireless
multiroom the rest of the time.MUSICCAST SURROUND - making the rear channels real
Yamaha Bar 400
soundbar + subwoofer- Good sound for both movies and music
- MusicCast streaming and multiroom
platform adds a whole lot of ways to play - MusicCast Surround can add real rears
- Subwoofer positioning fairly critical for
best integration with soundbar
Price (soundbar + subwoofer): $799
Options: MusicCast 50 speaker $599;
MusicCast 20 speakers $349 each
Soundbar
Model no: YAS-CU408
Drivers: 2 x 25mm tweeters,
4 x 4.6cm woofers
Quoted power: 100W (no criteria quoted)
Inputs: 1 x HDMI, 1 x minijack analogue,
1 x optical digital, Bluetooth, MusicCast
(includes DNLA, AirPlay)
Outputs: 1 x HDMI ARC, Bluetooth out,
wireless to subwoofer/MusicCast Surround
Dimensions (whd): 980 x 60 x 110.5mm
Weight: 2.7kgSubwoofer
Model number: NS-WSW43
Subwoofer driver: 1 x 160mm
Quoted power: 100W (no criteria quoted)
Inputs: wireless from bar
Dimensions (whd): 180 x 417 x 405mm
Weight: 9.4kgContact: Yamaha Music Australia
Telephone: 1300 739 411
Web: au.yamaha.com67
its performance was tightened and integrated
significantly by bringing it as central as possible,
the wide side with the active driver facing forward
and the port firing to the side. We’d pick a good
box-speaker solution for musical accuracy, but we
played many days of enjoyable Spotify through
the Bar 400 without our ears objecting at all,
something we can rarely say of soundbars.
Under the main app settings you can set up
MusicCast Surround (see panel). We were supplied
two of the little wireless MusicCast 20 speakers
(pictured left) which we installed at equal distances
beyond either end of our comfy sofa, and while we
had to run mains power to each one, there were at
least none of those long snaking cables that used
to be required before we had the joys of wireless
signal transmission, in this case
from the Bar
400 to the MusicCast 20s (we gather this uses its
own connection rather than your home network).
From there on we enjoyed a great deal of movie
fare, especially from Blu-ray where we could enjoy
the proper 5.1-channel surround. And one thing
was quickly clear — real surround makes a huge
difference to the immersion of a good movie
soundtrack. And not only with the blockbuster
action movies; so of course we blasted out Wonder
Woman’s No Man’s Land sequence, its shells
flying and bullets careening off her conveniently-
positioned bangles, but the rear information also
filled out the cityscapes of Blade Runner 2049, or
the winds of Balmoral and halls of the palaces in
Victoria & Abdul.CONCLUSION
Highly versatile, loaded with MusicCast, unusually
musical, expandable for surround, the Bar 400
proved an exceptional performer
for its price.Best Buys Audio & AV 2019-#2MusicCast Surround lets you
add two wireless speakers as
rears, as shown above, or just
the one stereo MC50 speaker
(right) behind your head.The MusicCast Bar 400 comes
with its own wireless subwoofer, and
can be expanded for surround with two wireless
speakers (the MusicCast 20s shown) as rears,
either permanently or just for special occasions.