The Yamaha WX-021 MusicCast 20 wireless speakers were first introduced around August 2018. Shortly there after, Yamaha also introduced its larger cousin Yamaha MusicCast 50. These speakers are fairly compact and can blend in seamlessly in most any place that you want to put them. These speakers still fairly pack a punch especially when they are used as stereo speakers. In this post, I will share our thoughts regarding how these speakers perform in 2023.
In 2018, I was planning to build a 5.1 home theater system. I planned to buy different speakers in a phased manner. Having previously use a Bose 5.1 home theater system without wireless surround, one of my major pain points was running wires to the rear surround speakers. When I was researching, I found that the Yamaha Music Aventage series and these speakers are the solution to my need. I purchased the Yamaha Aventage RX-A780 AV receiver and two Martin Logan XT35 bookshelf speakers. I started using my two bookshelf speakers in my office. Eventually, the plan was to get a center speaker, two rear surround speakers and a subwoofer and setup the home theater system in our basement. I ended up getting two of the Yamaha MusicCast 20 at different times and using them as wireless speakers in our living room. So far I have used these speakers individually and as stereo speakers but never as rear surround speakers as the rest of my home theater setup is not yet completed in the basement.
Positives
Negatives
The top face has many led indicators such as power, wireless, bluetooth and alarm. It has a nice glossy face with touch buttons. The speakers can be connected to wired network using CAT cables in RJ45 slot. The base has a rubber grip to prevent the speaks from vibrating. There is a port for power cord. Only the power cord is required to drive the speakers. It also has a USB port but it is for servicing purpose only.
I found the sound quality of the speakers to be good. Especially, when you pair them as stereo speakers they provide a decent output. I recommend to use the bass booster mode, by setting it through the MusicCast app, sound settings option. Comparing with other speakers that I have used such as Bose 5.1 home theater system and Martin Logan 35XT, I feel the sound quality is decent although not better than the other speakers. That said the comparison is not apples to apples, but just wanted to give a reference to the speakers in which I listen to music. Of course, these speakers are not loud enough to fill a large room, especially when it is used individually. I generally play FLAC format music from my desktop that works as a server. I also play music on my iPhone or through YouTube app through Apple Airplay. I have not run into any issues, while playing music in any of these way.
The accompanying MusicCast App works great on both Android and iPhone. I mainly use it for controlling the volume, turning the speakers on/off, performing OTA updates, and playing music from server. You will also need to use the app for setting up the speakers in stereo mode or as rear surround. You can play music via Airplay or bluetooth without using the app. The setup for stereo or rear surround mode may be a little complicated. Last time when I was trying to pair the two speakers in stereo mode, I was able to pair them without any issue, but I had a hard time to rename the two speakers. It is just a minor annoyance. I have not tried to use these as rear surround speakers yet, but I have read other user reviews that call out that the process is complicated.
The speakers get OTA firmware updates frequently. These updates needs to be performed through the MusicCast app. Most of the time these updates happen without any issues. However, there was one time when one of the speaker seemed dead after the update. The speaker will turn off few seconds later after I turned the power on. After multiple failed attempts to revive it, I turned off and unplugged the speakers and let it sit for a while. Restarting the speaker after a while resolved the issue. It seemed like for some reason the firmware update did not complete even though there was no known power or internet outage. I experienced this scary incident only once during my time using these speakers.
Looking through the wireless speakers market in 2023, you will quickly see that there are multiple Sonos speakers that the Yamaha MusicCast 20 competes. Although I personally do not use Alexa or Google Assistant, some of the speakers such as Sonos One and Sonos Roam both come with built in these personal assistants. Furthermore, the price of these speakers are lower compared to the Yamaha MusicCast 20. With that said, the Yamaha MusicCast 20 gets a leg up when you want to use it as a wireless rear surround speaker with a compatible Yamaha AV receiver.
To summarize, the Yamaha MusicCast 20 is still a great wireless speaker in 2023. Other than its larger cousin MusicCast 50, Yamaha has not released a newer version of the speaker yet. If you are shopping for one of these wireless speakers, look no further if you already own a compatible Yamaha AV receiver or need to use the wireless speakers as rear surround sound speakers. But if you are starting from scratch, it might be worth to listen to other wireless speakers and compare the sound quality yourself.
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