Customer Ratings & Reviews

From the giant home media consoles of old, through the high fidelity systems of the 80s and 90s, and down to the compact systems we have today, premium home theater sound has become smaller and more integrated as the years go on. Soundbars are perhaps the most popular option for home theater audio today, delivering strong (if not top-tier) sound performance in a small footprint. Standing out is difficult with hundreds of options on the market today, but Samsung’s new HW-S700D makes a powerful impression with a soundbar so slim and svelte it can all but blend into the bezels of a modern flat-panel TV. The engineering needed to pull off such quality sound with tiny speakers is impressive, and although a few design choices fall short and fine-tuning takes some time, Samsung’s sound bar is most worthy of your consideration for space-constrained home theaters. - Unboxing and Setup As is typical with soundbar & subwoofer combinations, the HW-S700D arrives in an L shaped box that will take a little care to open without tearing the packaging. All items are packaged very well protected, and the soundbar’s truly slim profile is surprising at first sight. Both the soundbar and subwoofer feel substantial and are easy to set up - power cables in each, and a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable for connecting the soundbar to a modern TV via HDMI ARC (audio return channel). Unfortunately there is no HDMI pass-through nor optical input option, so with any TV you’ll be sacrificing one HDMI port to connect this soundbar. Choose wisely! A basic product guide leads through connectivity options and using the remote. Hardware for wall mounting is included. The wireless subwoofer can be placed anywhere in the room, but I found the best positioning to be relatively close to the soundbar. Setup is as straightforward as can be - connect to your TV via HDMI ARC and turn the soundbar on for wired sound, or power on and change the input to Bluetooth to begin pairing. The subwoofer comes pre-paired and automatically switches between standby and power-on with the soundbar’s activity. From there it’s just a matter of dialing in your settings with the included remote, and you’re on your way. - Sound Quality As I state in every audio device review review, quantifying opinions about sound is difficult. Audio opinions are subjective and the listening experience is difficult to translate to text. I highly recommend sampling this sound bar in-store at your nearest Best Buy prior to purchase. Switching from a competitor’s 3.1 soundbar, my first impressions of the Samsung HW-S700D were of flat audio that didn’t sound particularly impressive. It took some tuning of the subwoofer level and changing audio modes to find the best balance - namely, “Standard” listening mode with increased subwoofer and bass settings, with a center channel at roughly 5/10 intensity, or as close as can be mustered with the soundbar’s vague visual feedback (more on settings adjustment in the next section). Once I dialed in my settings, I was surprised by just how powerful this incredibly slim soundbar performs, particularly in the midrange. With only an array of small, perhaps one inch diameter speakers in the soundbar, I was expecting tinny audio that would be difficult to dial in to a comfortable setting, but I’m pleased to report minimal adjustment was needed to achieve deep, room-filling and floor-shaking sound, if that’s what you desire. The powered subwoofer is low volume at the outset, which led me to believe it wouldn’t perform particularly well for “booming” bass, but it strikes a perfect balance between the “boom” and “punch” that most subwoofers are better known to do in one direction versus the other. Regardless, sound reproduction is quite good with a fairly neutral spread, though I do notice high treble sounds can still be a bit tinny under the right circumstances…if I’m specifically listening for it. It’s hardly noticeable in action. Dolby ATMOS support means this soundbar can deliver a “height” element to certain sounds in action. I certainly noticed what sounded like surround sound at times, with sounds bouncing off my walls and ceiling to sound like it was coming from elsewhere in the room. This effect was unfortunately inconsistent, as the effect would occur in areas I was not expecting it to or vice versa, but this is more likely a limitation of my media selection. ATMOS surround sounds are airy and ethereal, but when used correctly they do add a sense of scale and presence. The effect is ultimately convincing. One thing I most appreciate about the HW-S700D is just how loud it can get. I hardly brought the soundbar past 50% volume because I simply didn’t need it; even at that level it filled my home with powerful sound. But no matter how high I dared to push the volume, frequency response remained consistent and I couldn’t get the speakers to distort. I’m sure that in the upper echelons there will be some to contend with given the tiny speakers in the soundbar, but in my testing I noticed none at all. While the different sound modes have some impact on equalization, it’s the voice enhancement function that seems to make the biggest change to the audio. Once enabled, midrange sounds - where human speech most frequently occurs - are shifted towards the center speaker to deliver much stronger clarity. I found the enhancement to be somewhat superficial but it definitely boosted spoken dialogue, perfect for those hard of hearing to enjoy movies and TV shows. - Connectivity & Ease of Use HDMI ARC leads the feature list for connectivity, letting you control your soundbar volume via your TV remote and reducing the need for another remote lying around. Indeed, as soon as I enabled HDMI Device Control through my TV, my TV speakers were muted and the volume presented by the TV matched the HW-S700D at all times. Once I had my sound settings dialed in the Samsung remote was put away. The soundbar also supports bluetooth for streaming audio to the soundbar wirelessly. Pairing requires no passcode, and sound latency is minimal. Where the soundbar can use some tweaking is in the user interface. A row of status LEDs animate in response to remote control inputs, and voice statements play over any active audio to indicate the setting or mode selected (e.g. changing audio profiles or the name of a menu option). It took me some practice to realize the last-said option is what the up and down arrows on the Samsung remote correspond to, and visual feedback representing high versus low values is nonexistent. The soundbar will simply flash all LEDs multiple times when reaching a value limit instead, which makes fine-tuning settings frustrating trying to record how many clicks away from 0 or 10 a particular setting is. My recommendation is to set it up once with a profile that covers all use modes. - Bottom Line I was pleasantly surprised how well the Samsung HW-700D performed given its absolutely diminutive size. Though it required a little bit of fine tuning to find my optimal sound profile, once set up the soundbar performed admirably and delivered a room-filling experience. If space is a concern then this sound system will more than fit the bill, though I can’t help but sense the $499 MSRP is a bit high and there are better performing options at this price point if there’s room for them. Ultimately though, this soundbar still comes recommended!

To say this sound bar is a disappointment is an understatement. Never can tell if its on. No bass in the subwoofer. Dont buy this.

In the box is the soundbar, remote sub-woofer, remote with batteries, 2 power cords, normal HDMI cord and a HDMI to micro HDMI, quick start guide, mount guide and remote guide. First impression - This is the thinnest, slim soundbar I have never seen and I absolutely love it. Installation was simple, add the plugs and the cords and hook to the television and sync the speakers and you are done. The quick start guide does have instructions for the different buttons on the remote and the different light alerts and it also says you can use the QR code for the manual. I used the QR code and when I went to the link after unboxing, both links are a copy of the quick start guide. I hooked up the soundbar to a non-Samsung television and learned that when using the remote, it will speak what action you are taking. This was a little unconventional at first but I got used to it pretty quickly. There is a SmartThings app and if you are a visual person or someone that loses the remote constantly, then I highly recommend you download the app. The SmartThings app also links you to your smart home app to add the soundbar to your smart home as well. Once you get signed in (whether you already have a Samsung sign on or you have to create a new account), once your signed in, the app pretty much walks you through how to set up the soundbar and then your done. It basically turns your phone into the remote. For me, this is perfect because it tells me what setting the soundbar is set to when I start to watch tv. (We have multiple users in my household.) I haven’t had an updated soundbar within the past year and this is my first Samsung and I am pleasantly impressed. Please note, I paired this with my 4K TV. My favorite mode/setting so far is the DTX because the sound is SUPER clear and loud and I definitely use when I am watching a movie with Dolby Atmos. I tend to also watch older movies that are in HD and for right now, as I am learning the standard, surround, game and adaptive sound settings, I just pick and chose which mode/setting I want to use with each movie. The app also shows you the treble and bass setting and right now, I have both set on zero and they sound just fine. My daughter was watching something on YouTube and it sounded like someone was walking up our basement stairs; definitely needed to turn the bass down in that situation. The app also has the settings for the woofer and advanced settings, which includes voice enhancement and night mode. The night mode is DEFINITELY great for night watching when you are watching TV with ads. It sets the volume to one level, which is low. I haven’t really needed to use the voice enhancement yet because of the DTX setting. I did try it on an HD movie with each of the other settings and I didn’t notice much of a difference. I did try it on one of my soaps and I did notice that the voices were much sharper and clearer! Overall, I am very pleased with this slim soundbar and I would highly recommend to friends and family.

Samsung Ultra Slim Sound bar HW-S700D This sound bar deceives in that it produces such powerful sound for such a small and compact device. It includes a 35 inch wide sound bar and a subwoofer of approximately 14” High x 12” Deep x 8“ Wide. A power cable and a HDMI cable are included as is wall mounting hardware for the sound bar portion. Power output is rated at 250 watts total. One of the great features is that it connects via wireless Bluetooth so no need to have a thick HDMI cable from the TV to the sound bar itself. If your TV has Bluetooth then this serves well. Note that it DOES NOT have conventional HDMI, Optical or ANY wired inputs input so is not usable for any TV that lacks Bluetooth. The sound bar has a mini-HDMI output and is supplied with a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable for output connection to another device. The included 160 watt subwoofer is wireless also save for the power cord. The sound bar allows being calibrated to your space, in that it analyzes your environment and automatically optimizes the audio accordingly for accurate and clear sound. It has 3.1 Ch. Dolby Atmos Sound with 3.1ch Dolby Atmos sound. In addition, Samsung includes AVA (Active Voice Analyzer) which insures that audio dialogue is not lost and is very clear when watching movies, TV or other sources where room noise might interfere with hearing voices on screen. Adaptive Sound adjust dialogue in content so voices are heard better even when at low volume and especially when scenes contain music or special effects sounds. Specifications indicate that scenes are analyzed in real time to adjust dialogue for clarity. The sound bar has Alexa Built-In; it has wireless Dolby Atmos; it works with Chromecast, Tidal, Google, AirPlay, has Bluetooth 5.2, Spotify, and has WiFi 2.4 and 5 Ghz (with 801.11a/b/g/n/ac compatibility). It has Energy Star ratings for when it is not powered on. The sound it puts out on movies, TV shows, playing music via Spotify and Alexa is wonderful. The included remote control allows adjusting the volume, powering on and off, and switching whatever source you subscribe to via the Samsung app. I also paired it with an Android phone for music streaming and it works well. This sound bar from Samsung is highly recommended.

This is a great soundbar. The sound quality is terrific, with the subwoofer filling out the quality without being overbearing (sounds like a food review doesn't it). I especially like the thin profile. Our TV sits above the mantle over the fireplace, and the unobtrusive size gives us room for decorations on the mantle itself. We love it.

I have been very impressed with the sound quality and love the slim design of the soundbar. I have been very happy with my purchase.

This was a great item and an awesome sound quality

I got this sound bar to boost dialog for a 65" Frame. Optimizing the sound for this particular situation is frustrating because because the HW-S700D does not include any visual menu of your set-up selections. I have no idea if I've optimized the setup of my sound-bar for dialog. There's no on-screen menu to help you understand my menu selections. I can't even tell what the settings currently are. As a result, I think the settings are fine. The sound seems better with Q-Symphony and dialog enhancing selection on. The system really pops for music videos, but that's rarely how I use it. So, it's hard to say if I'm getting the best out of this sound-bar. I would recommend this device, primarily because of the price point. If it were any more expensive I'd say pass.

This thing is auctally really really small. The arc works really well. The bass really kicks I would buy again

This soundbar was recommended to me by the salesman and it sounds fantastic!

Not loud at all. If I could I would return this item but I threw box out too soon

If you want a wimpy sounding bass, this is the one for you. What a poor excuse. Did everything to kick it up, no avail. The demo sounded real well in store. Not so much when I got it home. Next time, I'll find something else.