Samsung - 3.1.2-Channel Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer, Dolby Atmos/DTS:X and Voice Assistant - Black

Portable and it fits easily in front of my tv. Seamless connectivity to my iPhone and other blue tooth enabled devices to play music effortlessly. It’s perfect for those movie nights when you want a theatre experience. Bass , Treble and sound equalizer work in perfect harmony. I am enjoying it and will surely recommend it to others as this is great find at such low price. Even at very loud sound level the quality of sound doesn’t deteriorate and you can hear things clearly.

So I bought this sound bar for a few reasons. One being it was hard to hear what people were saying in movies and tv shows because tv speakers just aren’t that good. Now I have a dedicated center speaker for voice and it’s wonderful. I’ve had full blown surround sound systems in the past and I didn’t want to break the bank, so this one does nicely for my small living room. Second reason I bought this sound bar, it was on sale for $450. Regular price was $650 I think and it’s great for the price point. I can watch my Apple TV movies that support Dolby Atmos and it sounds pretty good. While this system doesn’t come with the rear speakers, it does a fairly decent job of throwing sound above and behind you, and I can always buy the rear speakers to complete the set up when I get extra cash. The subwoofer is small at 8 inches but is more than enough for my living room. I haven’t once thought that there wasn’t enough bass. Lastly I wanted a pretty easy setup, I have a Samsung Smart TV I bought last year and this sound bar synced up no problem, Bluetooth pairing of the subwoofer was very easy and took no time at all. I have my Apple TV 4K running into the sound bar, then my sound bar running into the tv, and I have my Xbox Series S plugged directly into the tv. All you have to do to get the Xbox to play out of the sound bar is turn the sound bar on when booting up the Xbox. The sound bar also fits under my 75 inch no problem. Overall I’m pretty happy with this sound bar. I do plan to get a much better Samsung sound bar in the future like the one in the Magnolia section, I can’t think of the model while I’m typing, the one with 9 audio channels, but this one is absolutely fine for the time being and will probably get moved to a game room when I upgrade.

I just received my 3.1.2ch Soundbar with Dolby Atmos/DTS:X. It was packaged well and easy to set up. The wireless subwoofer connected seamlessly and I connected the soundbar using HDMI-Arc. I am really pleased with the sound of it. The subwoofer sounds really good when watching movies. The subwoofer is a bit tall and unable to lay on it's side so it doesn't fit where I need it to so it sits out in the open off to the side. While it was really easy to connect to my Alexa, and works well with it for the most part - it does have trouble hearing me over the sound of the speaker - I would have expected the remote to have a microphone on it. It also has an issue with it dropping the sound when listening to music thru Alexa - just a random second or so of silence then it picks right back up again. It's a bit annoying but doesn't happen all that often. I also think the remote is/looks cheap for the quality of the soundbar. My Samsung TV remote is gorgeous, metal, with a microphone - the soundbar remote is black plastic, curved oddly, and extremely basic. I received this product at a discounted price in exchange for my honest feedback.

Remember that SWA-9500S/ZA is the only compatible rear speakers for this soundbar. Trust me I was misleaded by bestbuy associates with other model but nothing is compatible other than 9500S. The soundbar is too powerful that it overpowers the woofer. They should have provided a bigger size woofer but if you are under 70% of volume its great.... decrease the volumes a little bit in the soundbar channels to match the woofer and you will be all set. Talking about sound experience, I wanted to instantly add the rear speakers for best dolby atmos experience. Sound bar is 3.1.2 channel. Rear speakers are 2.0.2 channel which makes the setup of 5.1.4 channel which is exceptional. I have a 75 inch QN85A TV with it. Any video you play with dolby support makes you immerse in the sound experience. You will be inside the scene. VVERY IMPORTANT TIP- If you have rear speakers set up, DO NOT USE Q-SYMPHONY feature. This feature just limits many features of soundbar and it will not be great experience. You cannot even turn on surround feature on your speakers so not worth it. The TV speakers are so so tiny that the soundbar over powers them even in 10% volume. So in a nutshell, get the rear speakers setup and turn off QSymphony, tweak the volumes in the channels to match the woofer volume and you will be all set. Finally, it will be cheaper and better experience than Q850A soundbar (More expensive overall) which have rearspeakers with is just 2.0 channel

When setting up, the subwoofer would not connect to the main speaker. After 5 months of returning 3 replacement subwoofers and then the main speaker, it still won’t pair.. Samsung requested I mail all the repaired and replaced items another time for repair. It is now five months and counting without a working speaker system. I first set up the product past the returnable date from Best Buy, so it is covered under Samsung warranty.

The RTINGS.com review of this soundbar is a good guide, but they didn’t test many features or settings (to best standardize their testing regimen) that can greatly sway one’s impression on the soundbar, including some points they docked this soundbar on. WHY I CHOSE THIS SOUNDBAR: Samsung has been on the up and up with soundbars and they’re definitely value priced. The HW-Q700A lacks the side firing speakers like the Sonos Arc soundbar, but I don’t have the best room to take advantage of such features as I have open walls to the side. I live in a small studio condo and I wanted my entertainment setup to look as sleek and minimalist as possible. This meant sacrificing the idea of using a BluRay player to feed uncompressed Dolby Atmos or DTS-HD Master Audio signal to the soundbar. I wanted to go all streaming to minimize wires and extraneous hardware, which for the moment, at best, meant getting compressed Dolby Atmos or other object-based mixing. That in turn capped my desire to get more extravagant and pricier soundbar options, like the Sonos Arc or Sennheiser Ambeo. In other words, I felt the HW-Q700A was well matched to my room and intended source fidelity. This model was also the minimum level that could connect to Alexa by WiFi (as opposed to just Bluetooth like the Q600A). It doesn’t have Alexa built in like the Q800A, which looking back would’ve been nice as it would’ve allowed me to not need my Echo Dot. Finally, the Q700A already had a price and overall rated sound advantage over the Sonos Arc by having a sub that’s optional on the Arc. And with the pricing adjustments, the Q700A with the optional rear speakers can cost the same or a lot less than the Sonos Arc, which then makes the big picture no-brainer case for this bar over the Arc for most needs. TEST TV AND SOURCE: The TV was a 2018 LG OLED55E8PUA. This TV can decode Dolby Atmos in compressed form through the Dolby Digital Plus codec and output from its HDMI ARC (not eARC). Source was from LG TV or Apple TV 4K streaming device apps from streaming services: Vudu, Netflix, and HBO Max. Since it’s not a qualifying Samsung TV, I also can’t take advantage of the Q-Symphony sound integration with the TV’s built-in speakers nor use the TV’s mic’s to calibrate the soundbar to the room’s shape. It’s an interesting way to get folks into the Samsung ecosystem. STYLING AND FIT/FINISH: Outstanding. Boxy faceted edges in my eyes looks better against a straight-edged TV. The profile is nice and low that doesn’t occlude the view of my TV, although the latest LG OLEDs will require either wall mounting or some elevated platform to rise above the soundbar. The metal housing looks high grade even up close. SMARTPHONE APP and PHYSICAL REMOTE: This is outstanding to a level I can’t imagine being beat by any other. It’s very nice looking, controls a lot of features that the physical remote controls. The app currently cannot control the narrower-band specific EQ settings, the on/off toggle for the Acoustic Beam virtualization, and the upper front speaker gain. INPUT OPTIONS, INPUT DETECTION, CONNECTION STABILITY: The RTINGS.com article on this soundbar gave this a 10/10 because it has all the possible input options one would want. For TV owners with just an ARC port and want the uncompressed, this soundbar with multiple HDMI inputs (including eARC) and 4K passthrough would be advantageous over a single HDMI port Sonos if one wants to hear uncompressed Atmos from a UHD disc source with uncompressed Atmos/DTS:X signals. With this soundbar, one can run an output signal from a UHD disc player to the soundbar input and then backpass the 4K signal to the TV’s ARC port. For Sonos, because it has just one HDMI port, a TV with just ARC would need a HD Fury Arcana plugged in line from a UHC disc source, which some users out there isn’t always glitch-free. OVERALL SOUND: I think the high frequency is good, the mid-range punchy, and even the bar’s woofer-frequency response is authoritative. The voice comes along crystal clear so I only wonder how much enhancement the Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) in the higher 800+a Series would add. The bar seems to sound better for TV/movie programming than straight audio tracks compared to my Denon HEOS 7 using the same music sources. The only sonic deficiency is what comes out of the subwoofer. For one, while it’s deep and plenty powerful (enough to rattle and buzz my desk some meters away while playing Dunkirk), the subwoofer doesn’t give the deepest response. Moreover, I don’t think the bass is clean as if the speaker enclosure or something else is adding extraneous reverberation from what’s intended. This discourages using the highest bass equalizer setting. Nowhere near as clean or deep as my cheap Edifier S350DB subwoofer hooked up earlier. But it’s not bad considering all the other great things this bar does for the street price. If one wants the deepest bass in a Samsung bar, it’s a good reason to go for at least the Q800A (with a far heavier sub) and higher models. SOUNDSTAGE and SURROUND SOUND CAPABILITY: The RTINGS.com article that just tested in “Standard” DSP mode stated the soundstage is no wider than the soundbar. The soundbar has a DSP mode called “Surround” which greatly enhances the spatial effect well beyond the soundbar’s dimension (especially for some orchestral soundtrack music), but I bet one loses the most precise placement of object sound. Then there is the Acoustic Beam virtualization technology that has many tiny holes projecting different frequencies of sound upward at some angle to further enhance the surround sound and object placement; this wasn’t tested by RTINGS.com. On another Samsung soundbar, this Acoustic Beam feature had 28x2 tiny holes shooting at an 18-degree angle. Turning this on along with the Surround DSP mode really made the soundstage very expansive and mesmerizing. I haven’t really noticed serious overhead effects but didn’t expect so on a system that doesn’t include downfiring ceiling speakers, and my ceiling is 12 feet high. I heard 8’-10’ ceilings are OK for upfiring speaker effects. Only time I feel like something is coming from above is when it’s coming from everywhere like some orchestral soundtrack music. Maybe there should be a small LED on top to light up when overhead effects are projected to make us think we’re hearing something from above. Unlike the Sonos that just supports just Dolby Atmos, this soundbar also supports DTS:X and Dolby Atmos. REAR SURROUND SPEAKERS RECOMMENDED: With such aggressive pricing, I highly recommend to use the saved bucks relative to the competition to get the optional Samsung SWA-9500S wireless speaker kit if you like to get the true cinematic surround experience, which I have.

I recently purchased the Samsung 3.1.2 soundbar with high expectations and thought I could get excellent value by purchasing the open-box excellent condition. By Best Buy's standards, open-box Excellent looks brand new (no cosmetic wear), includes all original parts/accessories and typically contains original packaging. In my instance, this couldn't be further from reality. The soundbar and subwoofer were placed directly in a massive box with no surrounding packing save a few pieces of thin bubble wrap. Upon taking the items out, I noticed that the soundbar had some considerable dents (likely from the poor packaging), the subwoofer cloth was ripped all along the bottom, and had noticeable scratches on the top and sides. It was completely missing the Wallmount Kit and had no user-guide/instruction manual. Overall this was a shockingly disappointing performance from Best Buy. I knew I was assuming some risk by the open-box excellent condition, but this was downright misleading based on their published open-box standards. I was very excited about receiving the speaker, and would imagine it would be nice given a good condition. Hopefully my experience can help someone else with their decision making process.

This soundbar far exceeded my expectations especially for the open box price. It was missing an HDMI cable but we actually had some High Speed cables from our 4k cable box upgrade that we didn't need so it wasn't that big of a deal. The HDMI ARC worked instantly and no codes were needed to sync the remote. It was truly plug and play. It was also nice to have the sub-woofer connect wirelessly. Just need to plug into a power source. Connecting to WiFi and using as an Alexa extension was simple and pretty cool as well. You can use your phone as a remote too with the Smart things app on your handset and it provides more sound customization. I have a S20+ and it seems to be best friends with this soundbar. Its gets really loud and sub sounds like a movie theater when turned up without much distortion. This ATMOS unit is going to be worth your money as long as your room is not too large. They also have a rear speaker upgrade which I plan to buy in the future that makes it 5.1.2