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Sale Price: $349.95 Last Price: $499.95 Buy now! 3rd Party 345.45 In Stock
Release Date: December 31st, 1969

Yamaha MusicCast 50 Wireless Speaker

Overview -
OVERALL:
Highly Recommended
Rating Breakdown
Tech Specs & Release Details
Release Date:
December 31st, 1969

Overview -- The Yamaha MusicCast 50 is a fairly big wireless speaker, offering the ability to stream audio from mobile devices or Yamaha receivers to listen to your favorite albums on vinyl or movies you want to view a fifth time this holiday season. This is a powerful speaker mainly used for larger rooms in your home that also has Amazon Alexa capabilities. There are various audio hookups and a ton of different streaming services you can use to listen to this speaker. It looks sleek and elegant and packs a big sound for around $500. With a ton of options available and its prestigious sound, this wireless speaker is an excellent choice for a big room. Highly Recommended!

INTRO

The wireless speaker market is gaining steam these days with every major electronic company putting out their own version of wireless entertainment speakers. Yamaha is no stranger to audio gear and has released a couple of wireless home speakers that you can set up in your house easily, enabling you to stream your favorite music or movie audio in a big way. Yamaha released a smaller MusicCast 20 that is ideal for small bedrooms or a kitchen, which provides some good sound in these smaller places. The MusicCast 50 is much larger and optimal for much larger rooms, such as a living room or giant master bedroom. The sound is much more powerful on the MusicCast 50 as well, with ample audio streaming options and audio inputs on the back of the unit. This is a somewhat expensive wireless speaker, at around $500, but the extra money you'll shell out for this is put to good use thanks to the quality of sound and available options.

DESIGN AND SETUP

The Yamaha MusicCast 50 is a fairly big and heavy piece of equipment. It is oval shaped and weighs almost 10 pounds and measures in at 15-3/4" x 4-7/8" x 7-7/8". That's much larger than an Amazon Alexa device and even bigger than an XBOX ONE. The top of the unit features an exquisite glass finish with a simple Yamaha logo and a bezel that outlines the oval shape with touch buttons and status lights. With so much surface area made of glass on top, the unit can get quite dusty and riddled with sticky fingerprints, especially if you have the black colored unit. If you have the white colored unit, the fingerprints and dust won't be as noticeable.

There is a power button, variously labeled inputs, three presets, volume adjustments, an alarm clock, and indicator lights for Wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. On the back of the unit, you have input options consisting of an optical port (used for connecting televisions or other devices), as well as an analog RCA audio port, a 3.5mm aux port, Ethernet cable port, and power cord. This is more than enough to connect any device physically or wirelessly. Unfortunately, there is no USB slot for a flash drive, but that's not a big complaint. 

Once you're all plugged into a power outlet, you'll want to download the excellent and very easy to use Yamaha MusicCast App on your mobile device, and from there, you'll be able to connect the MusicCast 50 speaker to the internet and to your streaming services with the click of a button. Supported services include Spotify, Pandora, AirPlay, Napster, Sirius XM, Tidal, and several other streaming platforms.

In addition to that, if you have a home network that is sharable and full of music, you can access that collection through the MusicCast 50 speaker. You'll notice on the unit that there is no headphone jack, however, through the Bluetooth function, you can connect a pair of wireless headphones and listen that way if you want music all to yourself after midnight. Lastly, this unit doesn't run on batteries, so you won't be able to take it outside with you, unless there is a power outlet close by.

SPECS

PERFORMANCE

So how does the Yamaha MusicCast 50 speaker actually sound? It's a phenomenal speaker for sure that provides amble highs and lows with enough bass to rattle your room. I hooked my old school 160GB classic iPod to the speaker and was not disappointed at all. I rocked out to AC/DC's "Rock or Bust" song and was surprised at the amount of bass this speaker puts out. I could feel each punch of bass clearly, along with the rock guitar riffs in the background and Brian Johnson's big shrill voice killing each lyric. Every drum hit and bass note was accounted for and sounded excellent.

I then hooked my turntable up to the device and slapped on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Complete Recordings and got lost in that soundtrack for a couple of hours. Hobbiton sounded magnificent with each crescendo of strings and horns coming through nicely and full. The big LOTR theme brought every dynamic instrument to full force and never sounded shrill or tinny like some other speakers can. Instead, the MusicCast 50 could handle all of it... and I had it turned up loud.

I then streamed some audio from my Spotify account to the tune of Ghost's "Rats" song, which lets you hear every vocal clearly and every rock guitar and synth chord with perfection, not to mention the enormous amount of bass. Just listen to the musical break with the old school 8-bit sounding synth notes, which this speaker just emulates in all directions, then crescendos into every instrument for its final rock chorus. It's an all encompassing speaker for sure. 

I also went to YouTube and watched some clips from WCW Capital Combat from 1990, where Robocop came out and saved Sting from a steel cage. As I was watching this clip on my iPhone, I could Airplay the audio through the MusicCast 50 with ease and I could hear the entire crowd yell, Robocop messing with the steel cage, and the commentators yelling like it was their last day on Earth. Bah Gawd, indeed. Each noise could be heard in that arena through these speakers. There were no dropouts or any issues with any of the audio I listened to. 

For my last bit of fun with the speaker, I had to stream the Soul Glo theme to see how it handled the mean sounds of the saxophone and the high pitched notes of the dialogue of the song. I can happily say it all sounded wonderful and brought back all of those Coming to America memories to the forefront.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Pros

  • Sleek, modern design
  • Easy to setup and use
  • Easy to use mobile app
  • Variety of Streaming services
  • Huge Dynamic sound

Cons

  • No Chromecast Support
  • No Headphone Jack

The Yamaha MusicCast 50 is simply exceptional. It's a fairly big speaker, but it looks sleek and modern and can blend in with your decor in your listening room with a variety of colors. This speaker packs a very full and robust sound and can handle a ton of bass and high dynamic ranges without any problems. There are quite a few inputs if you want to hardwire your devices in here, but the wireless capability is next level on this unit. With the MusicCast App, everything is simple to setup and use, and with just a click of a button you can wirelessly and seamlessly stream any audio from a variety of sources. You can even watch something on your television or mobile device with the audio coming through this big speaker simultaneously. If you're looking for a wireless speaker for a medium-big room, look no further than this speaker. It's remarkable to say the least. Highly Recommended!