Samsung HW-Q990B Evaluation: The Greatest Dolby Atmos Soundbar

When you’re an audiophile, the times when whenever you needed to spend hundreds of {dollars} on a receiver and persuade your contractor uncle to point out you the right way to run cables by means of the wall are lengthy gone. Soundbars, particularly these with devoted rear encompass audio system, have gotten so good that more often than not there’s no actual have to splurge on the old-school gear.

Particularly, programs like Samsung’s flagship HW-Q990B sound increasingly like your conventional high-end dwelling theater. This 11.1.4-channel soundbar bundle is the primary ever to characteristic wi-fi Dolby Atmos, and all it’s essential to set it up is 4 energy retailers and a brief HDMI cable.

In mere minutes, you’ll end up engulfed in fairly astonishing object-based encompass sound. Dragons, alien ships, and helicopters whirr overhead, bullets whiz to the left and proper, and even James Earl Jones’ baritone comes by means of full and clear within the middle channel. Except you’re keen to spend way more time (and cash), it’s downright onerous to get a system that sounds this good in most dwelling rooms.

Tentpole Setup

Whereas the within of the black-on-black HW-Q990B options loads of cool and fascinating know-how, the skin of the bar is extraordinarily boring (and thus simple to cover beneath a TV display screen). The bar is an extended hexagon, with angled corners to bounce pontificate the partitions, and the rear surrounds are giant, with angled tops to spray sound up and bounce it down as top channels.

The included wi-fi subwoofer is essentially the most nondescript of the bunch, a easy rectangle that might simply be hidden in any nook of my studio. Put the surrounds on stands. Plug them in together with the subwoofer. Plug the primary bar into energy, and likewise into your TV or projector by way of the HDMI eARC port. You then’re off to the films! Critically, it’s that straightforward.

These with higher-end programs, or who’re tremendous choosy about their inside design, would possibly wish to mount the primary bar or the surrounds. However that may be simply performed with a couple of drywall anchors and an influence drill (not included).

The Value of Entry

Spending $1,700 on a soundbar—considerably greater than I’d advocate most people spend on a current-generation TV—may appear silly. However then, take into consideration the final time you obtain a brand new pair of laptop audio system to go together with a brand new laptop computer. You have a tendency to not change your audio gear as often, as a result of they have a tendency to last more. Within the home-theater world, good sound isn’t by any means a static enterprise, however it isn’t growing as shortly as picture processing and display screen know-how are.

When you get a soundbar that is this high-end, with Dolby Atmos and all the trendy processing that comes with it, I’d anticipate it to final by means of a minimum of two TV generations. So in the event you anticipate your TV to final three to 5 years, a soundbar of this high quality would final 5 to 10 years, which makes the value per yr even by comparability.

Personally, I discover more-immersive audio brings me extra deeply contained in the motion than a higher-end display screen. It would sound like sacrilege coming from a TV and projector reviewer, however really participating encompass sound is among the few issues that almost all theaters do considerably higher than we do at dwelling. Everytime you bridge the hole with a very good audio system, it actually does quite a bit to convey you again to that movie show headspace.

In spite of everything, a big a part of most motion pictures and TV exhibits is the sound. You’ve most likely seen most exhibits in full decision on a fairly respectable high quality display screen, even in the event you’ve solely seen them on a cellphone, however have you ever heard them with full high quality sound, by means of good audio system or good headphones? Perhaps not.

Epic Constancy

I’ve heard wonderful center-channel soundbars earlier than—Sennheiser’s heinously costly Ambeo involves thoughts—however I’ve by no means heard a bar with such wonderful encompass audio system. The massive two-way surrounds pump out extra quantity and higher constancy than I’ve ever heard from a bar-plus-speakers setup earlier than, offering head-turning tire squeals and whooshes behind your head. At one level whereas watching the newest Fletch film, I swore that an actual fireplace alarm was going off behind me. Nope, simply the film. 

The bar, subwoofer, and surrounds mix with Samsung’s wonderful digital sign processing to do every thing from large boomy motion motion pictures to sultry classic detective motion pictures with theater-like ease. Bass is nice, however not large. You get sufficient rumble from the included woofer to listen to and really feel every step of an evil monster in Stranger Issues, however not sufficient that condo dwellers want concern retribution from their neighbors.