Yamaha's New Soundbar Has More Up-Firing Dolby Atmos Speakers Than There Are ‘Fast and Furious' Movies
Yamaha's True X Surround 90A soundbar home theater system, dubbed the SR-X90A, rams in 12 Dolby Atmos speakers that make the backbone of the setup. There are four drivers in the soundbar, too, and three whole tweeters, plus two additional surround speakers, and a standalone Bluetooth woofer to complete the system. Twelve up-firing speakers is a lot by market standards, and most competitors only have a few. This option from Samsung, for instance, only has four total beamformed speakers.
If you're not familiar with speakers that are beamforming like this, the idea is that the trajectory makes the sound from the soundbar more immersive since it more adeptly fills the room, bouncing audio off of the ceiling in a room to simulate overhead sound and height. I obviously have not yet used Yamaha's SR-X90A, but the fact that there are so many speakers dedicated to just that gives me reason to believe this soundbar sounds pretty wild. Having just used the Lenovo Tab Plus that crams in a lot of JBL-made Dolby Atmos speakers into one tablet, I can say anecdotally that more speakers definitely equate to more richness—or at least a lot more volume.
Outside of the glut of beamformed speakers, there are some other cool aspects of Yamaha's new home theater system, including the fact that the included surround speakers can also be configured as standalone Bluetooth speakers. The system is also outfitted with Surround:AI processing, which uses (yup) AI to optimize surround in your room in real-time. Whether AI makes audio sound better or worse to your specific ears will come down to personal preference, I guess.
As you might imagine, Yamaha's True X Surround 90A system will not come cheap—beamformed speakers don't grow on trees, after all. The system will launch in the U.S. this September and will cost $3,500 for the whole setup or $2,800 for just the soundbar (no additional surround speakers). If you want more, it looks like you're going to have to start saving now.
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