Yamaha SRT-1500 soundbase offers HDMI and wireless multiroom
Speakers
Yamaha's SRT-1500 is a $600 sound base.
That is, it's a speaker that you can put your TV on top of.
It's based on the cheaper SRT-1000, and offers two key features the other lacks.
An HDMI input and Yamaha's own MusicCast streaming system.
This speaker offers excellent semi-surround thanks to these beam drivers.
Which reflects sounds off your side walls.
The sound base also offers two small subwoofers, but you can add a separate subwoofer if you crave even bigger explosions.
With the HDMI input, the Yamaha will decode both DTS and Dolby soundtracks which makes it a good match for a Blu Ray player.
As I mentioned the speaker comes with MusicCast, which is a decent proprietary multi room system Which is also compatible with Yamaha's new receivers.
It doesn't offer many services, though, compared to Sonos or some of its other competitors.
The base itself is designed to hold screens up to 55 inches in size, but as TVs get bigger, they tend to feature stands that are incompatible with this kind of compact speaker.
Legs on HN, for example.
So, as a result, you'd probably be buying this for a smaller TV, like a 46 inch, for example.
But these rarely cost more than $600.
Would you spend more on a TV speaker than the TV itself?
While the SRT 1500 sounds really good with movies in particular, unless you really want HDMI input, I'd suggest getting the cheaper SRT 1000 and saving $200 instead.
It sounds identical.
This is Ty Pendlebury for CNET.com.
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