Samsung - Harman Kardon 5.1.2-Channel Soundbar System with 8" Wireless Subwoofer and 4K & HDR Support - Slate Black/Carbon Silver

If you're looking for a "hefty" sound bar, this is literally the heftiest system I have seen both in weight and sound. This system has the ability to fill a room and more. This package comes with the Samsung HW-Q80 soundbar, subwoofer, remote control (w/batteries), 2 identical power cords, HDMI cable, wall mounting brackets/hardware/guide, and user manual. Rather than go over ALL the specs which you can already find on this Bestbuy.com page, I'll try to give more observations of those specs instead. DISCLAIMER: In BT pairing, I used both a Samsung Galaxy Fold and a Samsung Galaxy S10e. PROS: ----------- * Really, really great sound. The 13 individually amplified speakers provide a clean and crisp sound with limited/no distortion, even at high levels. 9 speakers fire forward, 2 fire out the sides, and 2 fire out of the top (at an angle). Combined with HK sound processing, it truly provides a submersive 5.1.2 sound experience even without rear speakers. * The bar and subwoofer connect flawlessly upon power-up. * Bluetooth (BT) devices connect flawlessly with my Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10e. * Remote control is similar to the Amazon Fire TV remote as many other devices are also using this "smart" design. There was quick response from the remote to sound bar and the buttons felt solid. * Durable mounting brackets and hardware are included. * Samsung SmartThings app is useful in providing a graphic equalizer if you need more than just bass/treble settings. It is also used to manually push a firmware update to the device. Out of the box, there were no OTA FW updates to be taken. * As with most newer sound bars, it provides HDMI ARC ability for digital audio. Of course, your TV will need ARC too for this functionality to work. * If you have a Samsung TV, you can control the sound bar volume with the TV remote once they are synced together. CONS: ----------- * Sound bar does not include a headphones jack or coaxial input port. Even though sound quality lessens using analog, this is sometimes desired for some applications (ie. RF headphones that connect via RCA-to-3.5mm). The only audio port available besides HDMI is 1 Optical input. * At this time, the wifi feature for the system do not offer much, other than controlling the settings of the sound bar and optional automatic updates. The "Tune-In" & "Deezer" applications are the only available wi-fi options built-in and are pay services after a free trial period. There is no Pandora or Spotify built-in. * High price point could be an issue as this sound bar may cost more than your TV, possibly even double. On the flip side, this may be the best-sounding sound bar at this price point that I have heard. You will have to be the judge. OTHER OBSERVATIONS: ------------------------------------- * This system appears IDENTICAL to last year's Samsung SW-N850 Sound bar system. The only differences I have seen between the 2 are cosmetic: (1) N850 is a dark gray, the Q80 is black (2) The Harmon-Kardon label on the top of the bar is slightly smaller on the Q80, and (3) the cloth on the N850 subwoofer covered the entire driver side, including the side of the box (rectangle area). The Q80 only covers the driver (circle area). * This is the same sound bar and subwoofer as the Samsung SW-Q90. The Q90 however, includes 2 rear speakers which have 2 drivers each that improve the sound from 5.1.2 to 7.1.4. If you don't need as much depth/rear, then the Q80 will be plenty. * This system as a whole is heavy. The bar is 19.4 lbs and the sub is 21 lbs. It's heavy-duty, but the sound created is also really good. It has rubber feet on the bottom to secure itself on most platforms without vibrating itself off the ledge (from heavy bass by the sub). The sub is also just bigger all over (~16"x16"), and the sound bar is longer than other sound bars I own. Check your area and the dimensions of each component before buying. * Dolby Atmos can only be played back via HDMI. "Digital In" via optical fiber cable will not provide you with Dolby Atmos sound. * The Soundbar only displays if the received signal is Dolby Atmos, or DTS:X. There is no display for any other received audio format. * The grill on the front/top/sides of the sound bar is not removable like some other brands. It is made of metal which does protect the individual drivers of the bar. * The system connects to the Alexa Echo via the SmartThings app; however, I don't have an Amazon Echo so did not test this functionality. * The sound bar only has 2 HDMI-in ports, so if you have 3+ items to hook up (ie. Fire TV, gaming console, blu-ray player or other IOT devices), you'll want to go with another sound bar or receiver that will allow that capability. * There is a sound port on the back of the subwoofer with the right side having circular black fabric which covers the subwoofer speaker inside the box. Keep in mind that the right side shouldn't be placed flush against something since the firing sub driver is located there. * There are 4 button controls on the top/rear part of the sound bar: power, source, vol-, and vol+. CONCLUSION: ============== When looking for a quality sound bar system, you generally look for surround quality, frequency response, and price. You just want to have a great sound that immerses you in what you are listening to. The sound bar/sub alone does a great job giving good 5.1.2 sound. The rear/surround speakers are needed to give it even more depth but are included with the Q90 package. Volumewise, this system is plenty loud - loud enough for a full sized media room. The sub is huge and creates vibrating explosions and great bass for today's music. Personally, I'd like to see this product do more with built-in internal apps, specifically Spotify and Pandora so pairing to a device via BT is not necessary. An on-screen menu might be necessary for that functionality. The only thing in the SmartThings app was the Tune-It & Deezer pay services ... and I don't need to pay for another audio service. In conclusion, the bottom line is sound. You should be more than pleased with the sound of this beast for years to come. Great job again Samsung.

Very pleased with this sound bar/subwoofer purchase. The bar gives a very crisp sound and the subwoofer deep base. Sometimes the sounds seem to be coming from different directions just like the its advertised to do. Subwoofer is set on 1+ and the base is very deep. Im sure it would sound even better if I didnt have it in the stand. It's a great addition to our TV, 85" Q7 series. Would highly recommend this product, big Samsung fan!

So to start off, you’re getting a soundbar, subwoofer, remote, HDMI cable, and accompanying wired plugs in the box. The box for this unit is large and heavy, at appx. 50+ pounds, so be sure you have the space in your vehicle to accommodate it or someone to help you lift it. This soundbar alone will weigh about 20 pounds and is long from left to right. It’s approximately 4 feet in width, so be sure you have a stand, table, or mount that is capable of handling this. With that said, this soundbar is a beast that houses 13 internal speakers which are firing sounds straight at you, above you, and to the left/right of you. It’s an impressive experience to feel so immersed in the audio with this Q80R soundbar. I believe the total output of the soundbar and subwoofer is 372W of 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound technology. Overall this soundbar and subwoofer are very pleasing to the eye visually. They look clean and highly professional without any unsightly colors or styling. It’s tuned by Harman Kardon so you know you’re getting an audio experience that is ensuring a high quality state of the art experience. Compared to my previous soundbar which feels like a small toy compared to this Q80R, I’m very impressed with the capabilities of this Samsung soundbar. I like that I can customize the speaker controls to my liking with how much I want a center or side speaker to be pushing out. The adaptive sound feature helps to ensure you’re getting proper audio and clarity when scenes with low talking occur for example. There is even a Game Mode Pro which should ensure a game being played and help to optimize sound, but I wasn’t able to test this function out. The fact that the subwoofer is wireless and doesn’t need to be hardwired to the soundbar makes my life easier to not have run or hide a wire. The subwoofer simply plugs into an electrical outlet and pairs up with the soundbar wirelessly. It has a nice deep punch to it and is just right without being too much overkill on trying to shake a room. For my living room setting I feel it’s the perfect balance of clear sound and feeling the action. Being able to connect your phone to this soundbar adds for a nice experience because I utilize my iPhone for music streaming frequently. The one suggestion I have is to install the SmartThings app on your phone to help streamline how you stay connected with your other devices as well. I also liked the fact that I could utilize my home’s Amazon Echo Alexa commands to help change the volumes on the soundbar with my voice. Very convenient to have this option available to me. 4K video content streamed well and the sounds were movie theater like with Dolby Atmos. I truly enjoyed the experience of watching movies like Wonder Woman or Avengers Infinity War with the added depth of sound off of this Samsung Q80R soundbar. This soundbar is the one you want for your 4K content as it has a pass through to ensure you’re getting the high quality 4K video/sound experience. This is a great soundbar and it comes in with a high price tag on it. It is upgradeable to add rear speakers for an added charge, but you’re not going to get the full experience you should be getting with Dolby Atmos. Samsung offers a basic set of rear speakers that offer straight line sound firing for those wanting to add this component. Unfortunately they don’t let you upgrade to the preferred and most practical type of rear speaker that offers Dolby Atmos rear upward firing sound speakers. Those are reserved exclusively for the next model up soundbar. PRO: Impressive and immersive sound Easy to use remote 2 HDMI inputs on the soundbar 1 optical input on the soundbar Clean/upscale look Loaded with 13 speakers in one housing CON: Long soundbar at almost 4 feet wide Lack of adequate future addition to Atmos rear speakers Heavy soundbar for wall mounting

Tl:dr The soundbar delivers a big punch from pint size package. Great sound for wall mounted magnificence. The Harmon Kardon designed sound bar is big and somewhat heavy. It's about as wide as a 50 inch flat screen. The sound coming from it is about as big as the bar itself. It’s rich and full bodied. The sound is sent wide and can be heard cleanly and clearly all around the room. Frequencies were evenly amplified across the spectrum. Listening to Beethoven, I could hear the violin strings as easily the kettle drums. In movies, the sounds clearly followed objects on the screen. Connections were easy. There's 2 HDMI ports. Also a digital optical in. Bluetooth can be used to connect to phones, Alexa devices, or other electronics. Synchronization between the subwoofer and the soundbar was perfect. There was no noticeable lag as compared to a wired system. Volume for the sub can be set independently of the main volume for those who like more or less bass. I watched the same movies using a component set up in a different room. I did notice the bar was not quite as dispersive as the component system with discrete speakers. While the quality of the sound was nearly identical, the spacial spread was not as large. There was also a noted lack of sounds coming from the rear. This was abated somewhat by placing the subwoofer behind my couch (listening position). Samsung offers add on wireless rear speakers for a more complete listening experience. They’re also included with the HW-Q90R. For my taste, I know I’m not going to truly replicate the theater environment at home. From that perspective, this sound bar system does exactly the job.

If you like speakers on the brighter side, this is very good set. Clear sound and very easy setup. Provides some good life to the 82” TV that is well matched. However, I have two issues with this. That’s why no 5 star rating only 4. I have the sound bar connected via optical and since I needed more that 3 inputs on my TV I had to also connect the HDMI (ARC) from sound bar. The sound defaults to HDMI ARC always even if I switch it to Optical. I would have preferred to use optical to transfer the TV sound to the sound bar. The second problem is synchronization. You can only add more delay but cannot reduce delay even if you wire the receiver through the sound bar and if you do that then you lose smart hub capability in the TV I wish SAMSUNG/Harman fix these via firmware upgrades It is an expensive sound bar and these things become annoying.

I purchased a Samsung 65” Q80R TV and a week later purchase the Samsung Q60 sound bar and sub. While the sound wasn’t bad I felt it was lacking something compared to the picture quality I was now seeing. I returned the Q60 and after hearing the Q80 Sound Bar at the store I brought it home. Once connected (simple) I could not believe the sound. We watch a 4K movie and we had a feeling of being at a theater. I adjusted the upward firing speakers up and the sound was almost as good as having surround sound. I did not mount it due to its weight. I have to look into my options.

I have owned several soundbars and sound plates over the years. The experience has been hit or miss. This time around, I chose to give the higher end Samsung HW-Q80R a go. I am glad I did. What a difference a little splurging makes. Setup: Physical setup depends on what you want to do with the soundbar. If your intention is to setup the soundbar on a TV stand, bureau/dresser, or table then physical setup will be relatively easy. Setup will become more complicated if you choose to wall mount the soundbar. The soundbar does come with two brackets, two screws for attaching the brackets to the soundbar, and two holders that you screw into your wall. The responsibility of supplying drywall anchors, or other hardware to secure the holders to the wall, are on you. Samsung does supply a paper Wall Mount Guide to help with wall mount installation. It is a long rectangular piece of paper with printed measurements and holes marking the mounting hole locations. You tape the Wall Mount Guide to the wall, use your level to make sure the guide is level, mark your positions with a pencil, drill pilot holes for your screws where the guide indicates, and then you are ready to hang the holders to the wall. Keep in mind that this soundbar has ceiling firing speakers for Atmos. If you place the soundbar on a bureau or table then make sure the soundbar is forward enough to clear the bottom of the TV. The same is true for wall mounting. You will want your TV mounted flush to the wall so not to interfere with the Atmos speakers. You may also want to drop the soundbar a few inches below the TV depending on how thick the TV is. Equipment setup was slightly more complicated than a low end soundbar. The HW-Q80R has an ARC HDMI out port. This connects to your TVs ARC HDMI port. This allows the two devices to communicate with each other. Powering on the TV will power on the Soundbar and vice versa. Turn on the Blu-ray player then the TV and HW-Q80R turns on. And, sometimes powering on the TV powers on the Blu-ray player whether you want it to power or not. ARC does have a few issues. The HW-Q80R has two additional HDMI ports. These are for connectivity to an Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Steam Box, or other HDMI connected devices. I found that the Xbox must be connected directly to the soundbar over HDMI in order to leverage Dolby Atmos. You also need to download the free Dolby app from the Microsoft Store to use it. It is free for use with a home theater. Performance: Cinematic! Sound is coming at me from all directions. The 12 speakers in this soundbar are authoritative. Thankfully, the volume for each set of speakers can be adjusted. You can adjust the settings using the remote and the small LED display built into the right side of the sound bar. The Smart Things app from Samsung can also be used with the HW-Q80R control certain functions. I could control volume, input selection, Base, and perform EQ for music. I was disappointed that I could not adjust the volume of each speaker set in the system. It would have made calibration faster and simpler. Hopefully, Samsung will release an update that allows granular control. Once calibrated, the sound stage simply took over the whole room. There is a lot of sound coming from a very small space. Audio sounded big and not compressed. I played Star Wars Battlefront II, one of the few Xbox Atmos enabled games, and was completely impressed with the audio performance. The HW-Q80R relies on the bounding sound off the walls and ceiling for affective surround sound delivery. I could tell a blaster bolt shot came from my off camera to my left. The height speakers were more difficult to distinguish. I felt like the front firing speakers were drowning out these speakers. I then watched Ready Player One in 4K. Again, big sound. The bass from the sub-woofer is not as tight as to what I am used too. It is boomy. I had to move the sub away from the wall, out of the corner, and then turn down the base volume to get it calibrated for the room’s acoustics. I found the movie enjoyable once the base was brought in line. The bass soaked Mecha Godzilla scene did get its full due. It is no 12” dedicated subwoofer. But, for a soundbar subwoofer offering, it is pretty darn enjoyable. I also played Pacific Rim and Lego Batman. Both movies have Atmos soundtracks. Dialogue was clear, the music and sound effects were in your face enjoyable, and the sub-woofer did not miss a beat. Within minutes I was connected to iTunes on my phone and listening Bach’s Flute Concertos. I did have to go into the Smart Things app to set the EQ to Classical before getting an acceptable music experience. There is no way to manual adjust EQ using the HW-Q80R remote. I also had to adjust each speaker group’s volume to get the best performance. Issues: First, I cannot have unique speaker settings for each input. For example, if I calibrate the soundbar for the perfect movie experience then that calibration persists when I connect to iTunes to play my favorite classical number. If I switch the soundbar to Game Mode for my Xbox, then my Netflix video will use Game Mode until I explicitly make an adjustment. My TV is smart enough to use different video settings for Netflix, TV, 4K Blu-ray, and Xbox. Why not this soundbar? I hope Samsung releases an update to address this. It is so annoying that I am dropping a single star from this otherwise awesome product. Second, there needs to be a night audio mode. Everyone knows I am watching a movie or playing a video game. This may not be a big deal if your neighbors are not in the same building as you. Otherwise, be ready for upset neighbors. You can set the sub to 0 and reduce the sound for the surround speakers. Or, Samsung could make a night mode that does it for you. I prefer the later because I do not need to continually mess with the speaker settings. Final Thoughts: Awesome! I decided to aim for a top shelf soundbar and feel I got a top shelf soundbar experience with the HW-Q80R. Samsung literally blew me away. I did have to calibrate the system to my room’s acoustics and my own subjective preferences. Is the acoustic experience as ear bleeding wonderful as a traditional component system with large, dedicated speakers? No. Then again, it is not meant to be. The HW-Q80R wants to simulate that front row movie theater experience in a small to medium sized room. I feel it does a darn good job of it at this price point. You can also add the optional wireless Atmos enabled surround speakers if you want to add true surround or rear channels. The HW-Q90R is the same sound bar as the HW-Q80R but ships with the optional surround speakers. I chose the HW-Q80R because my space cannot accommodate the extra speakers. I encourage you to audition the HW-Q80R if you are looking for a compact home theater solution.

Loving the sound of this Samsung and Harman/Kardon pairing on this soundbar. The sound is well balanced with the highs, mids, and the lows. Music sounds awesome. Vocals and instruments sounds so distinct. My home theater just got an upgrade coming from a small Sony HT-X9000F soundbar with Atmos. I also have a 3 channel Samsung HW-MS650 soundbar paired with SWA-W700/ZA sub. Both of those setups sounded great but this Q80R outperforms them in so many ways. I’ve never heard so much sound coming from one unit and being deflected everywhere before. I watched Hunter Killer and Aquaman on my Apple TV4K and it truly sounded just like I was in a theater watching it. This soundbar has 13 speakers that deliver the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 5.1.2 channel surround sound experience. Two upward firing speakers and 2 side firing speakers and the rest are on the front of the soundbar. There’s a small LCD screen on the front that indicates volume levels and other sound adjustments. But, there is no indicator if Dolby Atmos is enabled or being used. It has four sound modes: STANDARD, SURROUND, GAME PRO and ADAPTIVE SOUND. The Adaptive Sound Mode supposedly analyzes the sound from what you are watching then optimizes the sound to bring out clear voices. I found that sometimes the volume becomes unsteady. For instance, the volume may go up or down when the commercial comes on then changes again when the show or what ever you are watching comes back on. I end up just using standard for music and surround for movies. You can adjust the sound levels for each of the channels (side, center, top, rear if you add the wireless rear speakers sold separately). I had to tone down the side and the top speakers because the vocals were being drowned out. The soundbar and the subwoofer bass levels can be set separately which I thought was a good thing. The wireless subwoofer lets you feel the intensity of the action and the rhythm of the music with the rich, clean and powerful bass of the 8” woofer. From thunderous explosions from a movie to the soothing lows of a bass guitar, it just sounds great and it sounds as if it was coming from a larger subwoofer. Speaking of larger subwoofer, I tried pairing the soundbar with another Samsung wireless subwoofer (SWA-W700/ZA) but I guess it doesn’t work. I guess it is not compatible. It has Bluetooth and Wifi for connecting your device wirelessly. It has two HDMI inputs, one HDMI output (ARC) with 4K passthrough. I like that it has two HDMI inputs because it lets me connect two of my devices with shorter HDMI cables because they are closer to the soundbar than my TV. It also has one optical input for older TVs or receivers without ARC (Audio Return Channel). I like that they separated the audio/video ports away from the power. It is less messy and easier to manage this way. My old soundbar cords were plugged in in the same area. I wish they didn’t use mesh on the top. Dust will accumulate and make it hard to wipe. Pros - Clean, clear sound - Dolby Atmos - 2 HDMI inputs Cons - Could use a little bit more vocals - Needs an indicator for when Dolby Atmos is active - Mesh top is a dust collector Outro This unit is a great alternative to the always overpriced Bose. I’m not a fan of Sonos so not even going there. This HW-Q80R with the help of Dolby Atmos let’s me have a room filled with sound without cluttering my space with speakers.