Review on Immerse in Measured Surround Sound: Yamaha YSP-5600 MusicCast Sound Bar with Dolby Atmos/DTS:X by Tricia Rosinski

Well you get what you paid for. This is an expensive soundbar but worth every penny in my opinion! A little background: I'm a music lover and have always owned heavy gear, like space-consuming Paradigm Reference speakers and power-hungry monoblock amps. In connection with the new life situation, I was forced to look for an alternative. Did a lot of research and decided to try the YSP5600. There are several ATMOS enabled soundbars on the market, but none are as compact (single unit) as the YSP5600 and cannot decode all DTS formats. ATMOS is a relatively new format with limited sources, but not DTS. The simple formats DTS and DTSMA have been absent for many years, and almost all films are presented in this format. By having this soundbar acting as a sink for HDMI decoding and switching I can do without its weakness, in my opinion it's just HDR transmission it doesn't have. Well, for this soundbar to sound right, there are prerequisites. You can't just buy this soundbar and expect it to sound good. First, you need a room that's the right size, without too many openings, without the right walls and ceiling. Second, you need to set it up properly, at least 3 feet off the ground and 6 feet from your seating position. Third, you need to calibrate it properly (even with autotune, I still had to manually set it). Fourth, you MUST have a subwoofer on top of that, without one you immediately realize that something is missing. However, if you meet all the criteria and set it up correctly, you are in for something breathtaking. You will find yourself looking around the room for the source of the sounds you are hearing. This soundbar is great at tricking your ears and brain by projecting sound onto the ceiling and bouncing it off the walls. I'm not sitting in the middle of the room, so I don't hear a lot of back effects. But the vocals, the separation of fronts, the ATMOS treble effect - it's all there, and even a little bit. Needless to say I am very happy with this soundbar! Thank you Yamaha! Now if they can update the firmware to allow HDR that would be the icing on the cake!