Yamaha presents the world's first Auro-3D soundbar

More than three years ago, 3D sound specialist Auro Technologies announced that it had developed a reference design for a soundbar. However, this was followed by some turbulent developments, which resulted in the takeover of Auro by the Goerdyna Group, which is behind the Dynaudio loudspeaker brand, among others. Now, however, Yamaha presented the "True X Surround 90A", the world's first Auro-3D-compatible soundbar, at this year's IFA press day.

The proclaimed flagship in the soundbar line-up can therefore reproduce the Auro-3D codec – from Blu-ray discs and UHD Blu-rays –, for example, which has become much less important in the film industry in recent years. Pure Audio Streaming has therefore set itself the goal of establishing Auro-3D in music streaming. Many 3D audio fans will therefore be particularly interested in the "Auro-Matic" upmixer, which is also included and adds height channels to standard stereo or 5.1/7.1 sound.

In addition to Auro-3D, the model supports the 3D sound market leader Dolby Atmos and the competitor format DTS:X, as expected. As with Yamaha's audio/video receivers, the in-house "Surround:AI" technology is also integrated, which is designed to dynamically optimize the spatiality to match the current playback. Officially, Surround:AI uses artificial intelligence to analyze the individual sound elements of each scene, such as dialogue, background music and sound effects, in order to perfectly adapt the sound field to the respective moment.

The technology behind the 3D sound

According to Yamaha, the basis for the room-filling, three-dimensional sound is a newly developed arrangement of the speakers in the soundbar with its 1.6 mm thick metal housing. In addition to three tweeters, there are also four specially developed "eye-shaped" – i.e. oval – drivers at the front. Thanks to their special shape, these should provide convincing and distortion-free sound even with limited space on the slim soundbar housing. There are twelve Beam speakers on the top, six on the left and six on the right. These reproduce the height information of the 3D sound formats through ceiling reflections. According to Yamaha's official promotional video for the soundbar, two height channels are generated.

A newly developed, wireless subwoofer is included in the package for bass support. Also included are two wireless surround speakers, which complete the surround setup and, like the subwoofer, are supplied with audio data via radio in the 5 GHz band. Unlike some competitor models, the latter do not send height information (via the ceiling) to the viewers in order to create two additional height channels.

For the surround speakers, the two matching charging trays for the integrated batteries are also included so that they do not run out of juice during operation. According to Yamaha, however, they can be removed from the charging cradles at any time for flexible use as portable Bluetooth speakers.

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The True X Surround 90A is compatible with Yamaha's MusicCast multi-room system and also supports AirPlay 2, Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music. The HDMI connections include one input and one output (including extended HDMI audio return channel eARC) and a digital audio input in optical version (SPDIF).

The True X Surround 90A will also be available in a package with the matching subwoofer and two surround speakers from the end of September 2025. The recommended retail price including VAT is around 2500 euros. Thanks to the wall bracket supplied, it can also be mounted in a suspended position.

(nij)