I have been using Yamaha YHT 1840 Home Theatre for more than a year now. And I think I have used it enough to write a review of this product.
I decided review this home theatre on my blog because I have been getting many emails asking me to recommend speakers and home theatre. Probably after my rant on amazon.in for some Sony speakers. I have recommended Yamaha Home Theatre to many of my friends and blog readers.
This is not a sponsored review.
Highlights
- Dolby Audio support
- DTS Digital Sound support
- DPL (Dolby Pro Logic)
- HDMI® (4 in / 1 out)
- 5-channel powerful surround sound
- 4K Ultra HD full support
Yamaha YHT 1840 Review
Usually, you buy an AV Receiver and speakers separately to build your home theatre setup. But these days, especially in India, AV receivers are bundled with the speakers and subwoofer.
Yamaha YHT 1840 is an entry level surround sound system. Apart from the most common surround sound audio formats, it also has features like Dolby Pro Logic, Virtual Cinema Front and Compressed Music Enhancer.
AV Receiver – The brain behind the system
The AV receiver of a home theatre system is the control hub for all the sound and video. Yamaha YHT 1840 has a powerful AV Receiver. It supports the latest HDMI® standards.
The AV receiver allows you to completely customize and configure the sound that will come out of your speakers and subwoofer. You can set the volume levels of each individual speaker depending on their location. You can configure how far your are from a specific speaker to make the surround sound more effective.
Video Support
It supports 4K Ultra HD with 4K / 60p high definition video without any degradation. It also supports HDR for enhanced picture quality. You can watch your favourite movies in 4k on Netflix.
Audio Support
When it comes to supporting audio formats, this system won’t disappoint you here either. It supports Dolby Audio: Dolby Digital & Dolby Digital Plus. It also support DTS Digital Sound (DTS-HD). PrimeVideo and Netflix both have 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio in their movies and shows.
Other Features
- Dolby Pro Logic (DPL) – This is a very good feature in this AV Receiver. The receiver basically converts 2.1 sound to 5.1 surround sound. Some times it does very good job but sometimes not.
- Virtual CINEMA FRONT – This will be very useful for you if you don’t have enough space in the room to spread the speakers around. With this mode, you can put all your speakers in front and the receiver will produce virtual surround sound.
- Cinema DSP – This Yamaha’s exclusive CINEMA DSP technology provides natural and expansive sound imaging
- DSP Programs – It has 17 in-built programs to choose from to enhance your sound depending on the type of audio you are playing.
Two important modes are where you can set the sound to 2.1 and 5.1. In case, you don’t enjoy DPL and 5.1 sound coming from a stereo device, you can select 2.1 mode to enjoy that content in plain 2.1 sound.
And the sound when listening to music with DPL is just plain bad. You can switch to 5.1 mode in music to get a great sound.
Speakers
The system has 5 speakers for a great surround sound experience.
- 70 W per Channel (6 ohms, 20 Hz-20 kHz, 0.09% THD, 2-ch driven)
- 100 W per Channel (6 ohms, 1 kHz, 0.9% THD, 1-ch driven)
- 135 W per Channel (6 ohms, 1 kHz, 10% THD, 1-ch driven)
There is no distortion from the speakers even on high volumes. The sound is crystal clear and extremely well balanced. You can still change the volume of each individual speaker though.
Subwoofer
This is the area where this review lost one star. Don’t get me wrong, the subwoofer is very good. But there is scope of improvement. The subwoofer that comes with the bundle is a passive subwoofer which means it doesn’t have an builtin amplifier.
The bass this subwoofer produces is just amazing for watching movies. But sometimes, in some scenes with very low bass, the bass distorts a little bit. It happens in like 1 out of 20 movies and that too on very high volume.
This issue bothers more when you listen to music. Again, the bass will be good. But not as good as a good stereo sound system with a good amp and subwoofer.
If replaced with an Active Subwoofer, this system will become perfect.
Cons
- No USB input & No Bluetooth – Bluetooth and a usb input is a basic feature for most system these days. But Yamaha YHT 1840 misses out on them. Even if you cannot get surround sound from usb or bluetooth, I don’t think a bluetooth/USB would have hurt.
For bluetooth, I have added TP-Link NFC enabled bluetooth Music Receiver. It is a small device, has NFC for quick pairing and doesn’t reduce the sound quality.
- No Active Subwoofer – I don’t think the subwoofer is powerful enough to handle what the AV receiver has to offer. An active subwoofer would have been a perfect fit to make this review a 5 star review for me.
- No Dolby Atmos or DTS-X – This AV receiver doesn’t support 7.1 audio formats.
Conclusion
Watching movies on this system is an amazing theatre like experience. The sound is extremely well balance, crystal clear and distortion free.
I bought this system to watch movies not to listen to music. So I don’t regret buying this home theatre. But I do plan to add an active subwoofer to the system to make it perfect.
If you are looking for a a great entry level home theatre system, Yamaha YHT 1840 is a great choice. But if you have a little more budget, you can go with Yamaha YHT 3072 which comes with an active subwoofer and bluetooth.
