Yamaha True X Surround 90A system review

Yamaha’s soundbar trajectory has been wild. After leading the earliest days of surround sound with its processors and receivers, the Japanese company predicted the soundbar market with some serious ‘Sound Projectors’ that were laden with dozens of curious little (2cm) circular dome drivers supposedly capable of forming ‘beams’ that could then be directed to bounce rear sound behind you. As a bonus, some such projectors could even beam the sound off to one side for when you were cooking in the kitchen. Tech marvels!

But suddenly they disappeared. Soundbars became as basic as could be. Yamaha released a series of small soundbar and subwoofer combos – impressive for their size and price, but nothing like the old days.

Then came the ‘True X’ soundbar system, released at the end of 2023, a refreshed tilt at a higher level of soundbar, as well as fully networking for the benefits of Yamaha’s MusicCast streaming and multiroom platform. In particular, that True X soundbar (the SR-X50A) could join with wireless rear speakers to deliver full surround sound, while the bar had an upward-firing driver at each end to deliver ‘height’ channels for those Dolby Atmos soundtracks which offer it. The system performed extremely well.

Now comes a new True X, which in Australia arrives as the True X Surround 90A system, led by the SR-X90A soundbar and accompanied by a wireless subwoofer and two WS-X3A wireless speakers, which can be used either as rear speakers for the bar or independently elsewhere as Bluetooth speakers; each has a little charging dock to allow easy portable use.

All that adds up, we think, to 5.1.2-channel delivery, with real drivers all round to deliver real immersion. It all comes in just one large and really quite heavy box.

The soundbar itself is markedly larger than the earlier True X bar, and gains a full information display. Especially notable, at each end of its top surface, the single upward driver of its predecessor has been replaced by a large grilled area under which can be seen an array of those little (28mm) silver-domed drivers – six of them on either side (see the image below).

So yes, ladies and gentlemen, Yamaha has brought back the beams!

A receiver in a bar

So the idea is that Yamaha’s beams will allow much better control of the height channel than does a single driver trying to bounce sound off the ceiling. And as we’ll see, you can adjust their reflection angle and focus zone to suit your room. So the new beams are an interesting advance. But we reckon there’s an even bigger one here, relatively hidden away.

Because Yamaha seems to have transplanted much of the brains of its award-winning Aventage AV receivers straight into this X90A system. This package offers the same MusicCast streaming and multiroom module as Yamaha’s full-size components, but beyond that there’s also the same soundfield processing, even the same Qualcomm QCS407 chip, a ‘smart audio platform’ which provides powerful quad-core audio processing for immersive soundtracks. It’s used in even the highest flagships of the Aventage series.

This also brings Yamaha’s ‘Surround:AI’ DSP and upscaling, which is a bit like AI processing in TVs that analyses picture information to apply the best video processing. Here ‘Surround:AI’ analyses the sound of movie and TV content to apply the most useful DSP. We’re generally wary of automatic processing like this, but we happily confess to using ‘Surround:AI’ regularly on our resident Yamaha AV receiver to expand lesser programming to our system’s full channel count – not so much for music, perhaps, but very welcome for, say, The Curse of Oak Island, souping it up without stuffing it up.

For more receiver similarities, look also at that proper front text display, with two lines and various indicators, including a constant display of the active channels, just as on an Aventage AV receiver; this is leagues more informative and intelligent than the previous True X bar’s mere status lights.

So this is a receiver brain, in the body of a soundbar. Hence Yamaha locally seems to view this package as a proper home cinema system that might suit those who really want full-impact home cinema but simply can’t fit in a big receiver and speaker system. Also hence the package will be available here in Australia only from the same dealers who handle those full Yamaha receiver systems, thereby also ensuring a high level of service and support (perhaps starting with carrying it in, given the weight of that single carton).

So, while you may have noticed that this is not a cheap system, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on. Let’s see exactly what you get.

The main bar is a significant size: 118cm long, more than 14cm deep and 85mm high, partly due to large silver feet which will lift the bar usefully over any central TV stand, though this height is right on the limit where it might cover either the TV’s picture or its IR receiver. The bar has a rigid metal frame, with the top finished in matte black, and it reflects a little light from the bottom of the TV image.

But there are no ports underneath the bar, so there doesn’t seem any sonic penalty for unscrewing those feet and dropping the bar onto some sticky-tack blobs or sorbothane tabs to save a useful 10mm. You get metal wall-mount brackets in the package as well.

At 11kg the new bar is nearly 20% heavier than the previous True X bar, and larger in every dimension by a similar amount. The curved ends give it a touch of class over cheaper boxes, and the off-centre display is relatively unobtrusive, given the bar’s size.

To the rear it has two angled connection bays. One takes the mains cable, the other the signal connections: an HDMI output to your TV with ARC/eARC to play back TV audio, also one HDMI input for an external device, plus an optical input, and an Ethernet socket for networking (if preferred to the dual-band Wi-Fi also available).

The soundbar also has Bluetooth in, for wireless music playback (SBC or AAC only), or possibly for Bluetooth transmission of TV sound, though this risks audio delay.

We’ve already mentioned the six 28mm drivers firing upwards from the ends, at a slight forward angle it appears, ready to deliver height information from each end of the top surface. All the other bar drivers are along the front, in a forward-facing L-C-R arrangement. Left and right channels each get a 25mm tweeter and an oval (better than racetrack-shaped, says the company) cone with 110 × 53mm diameters; the centre channel gets a tweeter and twin oval drivers.

Note there are no drivers in the ends firing sideways, as have many soundbars in a (usually futile) attempt to bounce surround off side walls; they are not required here because you have genuine rear speakers instead. This might be thought to limit soundstaging width from upfront, but as we’ll see, and especially with the ‘Surround: AI’ setting, there proves to be no such gap in this bar’s performance.

The matte black wireless subwoofer is a fair size: tall and deep at 38cm × 41cm, though usefully narrow at 24cm, and even more usefully firing forwards, behind its non-removable grille. The previous True X subwoofer fired sideways and ported forwards, which made it relatively hard to position; this one fires forward and ports down through a slotted base, so it could go into more enclosed positions. That internal port is a ‘Symmetrical Flare Port’, shaped like a giant thick serif letter ‘I’, which Yamaha says smooths the air flow from the port exit.

Finally you have the two wireless rear speakers, which are little towers, each with a square footprint but rising 22cm high. They have a USB-C input for power at the back, but this package includes their charging cradles, into which the USB-C cable can tuck more neatly, and also making it easier to pick up one of the rears and take it away.

Why would you do that? Because each of the tall WS-X3A speakers can be used independently as a battery-operated (or USB-powered) Bluetooth speaker to take anywhere in your home, while remaining easy to return to their positions to fill the room with sound for a big movie night.

Finally there’s a remote control, and for once we much approve of Yamaha’s remote design. Despite this system doing so much, it’s not the company’s usual button-gasm, and it’s far less likely than previous Yamaha soundbar remotes to lead people into crazy soundfield options. Plus there’s the MusicCast app, which further assists with setting up and control.

Setting up

As mentioned, one large and heavy box contains the bar, the subwoofer, and two WS-X3A wireless speakers. That’s four mains cables you’ll need to plug in, and the supplied ones were all on the short side: 1.5 metres for bar and sub, very short one-metre USB cables for the rears. We swapped out two cables and used an extension cable on another, all to plug in our ‘wireless’ system.

But after that, it was all pretty easy. Once the soundbar is plugged into the TV, you can use its on-screen menus, many of which reminded us of Aventage receiver menus, in combination with the MusicCast app.

The basic positioning and pairing went smoothly; we put the rears on their little cradles, then used the top buttons to get the speakers ‘registered’ to the bar and connected, and also to select which was left and which was right (although the light to confirm this selection is hidden at the bottom of the back).

From here the MusicCast app can get you networked by Wi-Fi, unless you previously gave the bar an Ethernet connection. MusicCast is both a streamer and a multiroom controller, so you can set up the X90A system as a ‘Room’ (ready for multiroom operation with other MusicCast rooms), and then get into the more detailed settings.

You can adjust the level of each channel – or rather the LCR channels are fixed, and around those you can adjust the rears, the height channels and the subwoofer while test tones play. There are bass and treble controls, and soundfields and stuff, but those are for later play. There isn’t any ‘room calibration’, and we certainly didn’t miss it.

There’s also a further kind of height adjustment: the fine tuning of Yamaha’s
magic beams. This confused us at first, even with the downloadable User Guide to hand (we gather this Guide may be tweaked). But we think we have it now. First there is one adjustment available in the app (middle screengrab below), which independently adjusts the angle at which the beam from each side fires up – so that would be 90° to have it go straight up, while the default setting is 72°, angled towards the ceiling between the bar and the listener.

But also, in the bar’s on-screen menus, you can then further adjust for ceiling height (straightforward enough), and also ‘Focal Length’ for each height channel. This was said to “adjust the height beam width (sweet spot) for left and right respectively”. We had no idea what that meant, so we asked… and got sent the diagrams shown on the on the right below. So the focal length is the point at which the beams converge. With a short focal length the beam will then diverge further to create a wider sweet spot, while a longer focal length will diverge less and create a smaller sweet spot.

So now you know. We’re told the angle adjustment is the main variant – hence that’s the one in the app. But thanks to the useful test tones, you can tweak each setting as you listen, trying for the best level, we’d assume.

So we did that. Ready to play? Think so.

Listening sessions

We ran a few Atmos tests to check everything was getting through as it should (hoorah for confirmation via the front display), while also getting accustomed to the sound modes that can be selected by either the remote control or the app. The ‘Straight’ sound mode just plays what’s coming in, or there’s ‘Surround:AI’ which, as noted, ‘intelligently’ upscales to the full system. There’s also a Bass Extension button and a Clear Voice button, both of which should be used only in extremis.

We kicked off in ‘Straight’ mode with some solid action, playing the fast-paced movie ‘Heads Of State’ on Prime, the audio arriving via the HDMI connection from the TV.

Just this movie’s opening scene was enough to prove the case for having the wireless surrounds in the system; the immersion was immediate. First there was first the busy atmosphere of the tomato festival around us, then the first gunshot whacking home with a big if slightly soft splat, then general mayhem as the drama developed, plenty of subwoofer underpinning the big stuff, nice steerage as shots shifted from the bar to the back right. ‘Wheee-eeeee!’, as they say.

But no height, even when we pressed our ears against those beaming top height arrays, because Prime was delivering in 5.1 (with HDR10+ video, surprisingly). So using the remote we pressed the ‘Surround:AI’ button, and rewatched this scene.

It was significantly and usefully enhanced: widened, more dramatic, seemingly more dynamic. Many such enhancements have the effect of bringing this enhanced action sound at the cost of dulling or recessing dialogue; here there seemed little difference to dialogue, so no downside to the upscaling. The subsequent drone attack on Air Force One was so entirely involving that we sat open-mouthed through the first viewing. Later there was some bouncy dance music during a fight sequence which took full advantage of the subwoofer; this kept up with the bass beats and integrated well, not steering too much towards the side where we had positioned it. The bar’s size may assist this by offering a crossover frequency down around 120Hz.

The system’s integration was impressively demonstrated by an object effect at 1 hour 19 minutes, where something falls directly in front of the viewer. We enjoyed one of the most ‘in the room’ effects deliveries we’ve ever heard for this; it was good in ‘Straight’ mode, even better in ‘Surround:AI’.

There are more options for upscaling your audio, though these are hidden somewhat confusingly under a ‘3D Music’ setting. Yet they can equally be applied to a movie soundtrack, and beneficially so from our listening. The three options do not seem accessible (yet) from the app, so you have to stop playback and go into the bar’s on-TV menus for ‘Surround Decoder’, where there is a choice of D. Surr (presumably Dolby upscaling), Neural:X (DTS upscaling), and Auro-3D, this last a format with a long history and which has been undergoing a reinvention in purpose over the last few years.

Interestingly, it is Auro-3D which Yamaha seems to have set as the default for this ‘3D Music’ option, and we wouldn’t disagree; it certainly proved itself during an evening when we were shamelessly bingeing Star Trek Season One from an early 2007 Blu-ray box set, playing to the bar through the direct HDMI input. With ‘Surround:AI’ engaged, the wireless rears performed well enough with the remixed surround, though dialogue was given an unnatural extension into the rears, with inappropriate delay. The Auro-3D setting under ‘3D Music’ was far more effective, channelling background FX to the rears and creating really cohesive atmospherics. Another notable performance was the Starburster theme to Mobland, streaming on Paramount: ‘3D Music/Auro-3D’ delivered delineated rears; ‘Straight’ or ‘Surround:AI’ not so much.

There is one note to this: the successful cohesion works best when you’re giving it at least a little in the way of welly. At casual or moderate volume levels the surround output could be so low that the rear speakers did little more than distract. To have the rears help form an integrated whole required a volume level which was more enthusiastic – proper movie listening levels!

So at other times, the obvious suggestion is simply not to use the surrounds on such occasions. Once registered and connected they will turn on automatically with your TV, but you can always tap them into Bluetooth mode.

There are other options. You can just crank the rear channels up beyond their normal levels; this is easy to do because the remote control is blessed with dedicated surround volume buttons, while the adjustments appear on the bar’s display, so it’s easy to return to the normal settings afterwards.

Or you might, especially if listening alone, bring those rears in really close, maybe just a foot out from your ears. This boosts their perceived bass and fills out their tone, and we enjoyed doing this when our partner was absent, enjoying a richer soundfield, with all the rear details more easily distinguished.

And especially for music. We have a large collection of actual Atmos and surround music on disc, but there was also that ‘3D Music’ button with which to experiment.

We engaged this while watching a live Snarky Puppy gig on MarqueeTV, a streaming channel with great art content, but only stereo delivery. The ‘3D Music’ option brought a lot of action to the surrounds, from the opening crowd noise to judiciously-thrown treble content, and it did genuinely enlarge the experience to something more immersive — not an easy trick, though of course Yamaha has decades of experience in doing this with their reality-driven DSP soundfields.

As noted there are three options behind ‘3D Music’, so we tried each on the Snarky Puppy set. ‘D. Surr’ created some rear channel delays too long for our liking, even with the surrounds back in their more distant positions. Neural:X was effective, but again Auro-3D was our preference for its fuller and more realistic immersion. Which is good because, as noted, the Auro-3D is selected by default. Although just to add to your experimentation, the bar’s on-screen menus also allow you to tweak the Auro-3D effect via three strengths and a number.

Of course there’s also the ‘Surround:AI’ option, so you can have a play and find what best suits your material of the moment. And for once, none of the options is truly awful, though as noted, steer clear of Bass Boost and Clear Voice unless desperately needed for duff material. There’s an ‘All’ option which monos everything through all speakers: possibly useful for a party, certainly for checking everything’s in phase and balanced: is the sound centred well in your head? Good, now switch back to ‘3D Music’/Auro-3D.

One boon through all this is the combination of the excellent remote control with the ability to adjust many things via the app, and the on-bar display showing exactly what’s going on with the surround channels.

And the more we used the remote, the more we liked it. It’s a good size to hold, and it’s the best laid-out and most-intuitive Yamaha remote we’ve seen in many long years. Whoever designed this one, Yamaha, keep them on it!

Moving to Blu-ray Atmos music, we loaded the recent ‘Pink Floyd at Pompei’ Blu-ray reissue into the direct-connected Blu-ray player, and fired up Steven Wilson’s marvellous Atmos remix of the feature-version soundtrack. The X90A package did a fine job of spreading this mix into the room, as we sampled the various deliveries.

The ‘Straight’ option now seemed best with genuine Atmos music on disc, fed straight to the HDMI input; it kept things clear as well as properly channelled. We tried the 3D Music options and some of them did sound big and open, but they all felt somewhat pumped, the subwoofer particularly raised, though of course you could tweak that back.

But best of all, with any setting we could keep turning up the volume without hitting an obvious limit from distortion in either the bar or the rears. We had the Atmos version of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ running high enough to alarm the dog, with still more in the tank, and everything fully discrete in its location from the chimes of Time to the chinks of Money. And this is a musical sound. In the early days of soundbars, the long thin boxes were awful at making music, but many hi-fi makers have long since turned that around. Here with all manner of streaming via MusicCast, including Spotify and Tidal Connect, and AirPlay 2, the X90A bar is as happy to be streaming community radio in stereo on a sunny Sunday morning as it is beaming and bouncing Atmos around the room on a stormy Saturday night.

Off beam

How about those wireless rears when taken away alone as a Bluetooth speaker? How do they sound? Pretty good, again able to play tunes surprisingly loud and full, especially lifelike in the midrange, if limited in separation, playing only in mono, despite the specs indicating two active drivers and two passive radiators in each tall WS-X3A speaker. There is enough bass to fill the sound, though it’s not particularly taut.

There were few quirks with the overall system. We had occasional lip-sync fails via the HDMI input, but not repeatably, and they were generally fixed simply by turning off the TV and bar and turning them on again.

It would be better if all menus and settings were available via the app; perhaps eventually this will be so. Or even via a browser interface; anything to avoid switching to the bar’s own menus. If you’re listening via HDMI ARC, which will be most of the time, then pressing the remote’s settings button switches the TV to the soundbar’s own input, so you can see its menus, and your current programming disappears. While it’s actually clever that this switch happens automatically, you still then have to reselect the original input, or reload the streaming service, or whatever.

The app does allow access to speaker levels and even height beam adjustments, though not ceiling height or focal point – and not the options behind ‘3D Music’, nor the variables in the Auro-3D. It’s quite possible the app will be updated later, solving this inconvenience for those who like to play.

Verdict

Yamaha’s True X Surround 90A package may seem relatively complex, with its takeaway rears and its on-screen menu options, and is priced so high that you might instead get an entry-level receiver and a set of speakers for a real home cinema experience.

But the whole point here is to offer as much of that performance as possible without those bulky items, while including the higher levels of technology. And the package succeeds in this; the wireless rears are small, the subwoofer easy to accommodate, the bar quite large but unobtrusive.

Meanwhile the keys to the package’s successful presentation were in its ability to play loud while delivering genuine immersion, given sufficient level in the rears. If not as effortlessly joined-up as would be a true surround system with more sizeable speakers, it’s more genuine than most soundbar-based systems, with the enhanced height beams surely playing their part here in helping pull the whole soundfield together.

For its smart streaming, its sexy height beams and its reassignable rears, for its musicality and its genuine Atmos performance, we can proclaim Yamaha’s True X Surround 90A package to be something of a soundbar superstar!

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

• Showcase! - world-class Australian home theatres & smart homes