Samsung |HW-Q600A | 3.1.2ch | Soundbar | w/Dolby Atmos/DTS:X | 2021
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Reviews & Ratings
- LEE2021-04-03Dolby Atmos, eARC, includes subwoofer, Bluetooth to phone, can separately add back speakers
It's good enough to be top-rated by Consumer Reports, in my opinion. I'll give some tips on why or why not to get it, and what it is: * I wouldn't get it if your TV doesn't have HDMI eARC capability. If your TV only does HDMI ARC, I'd save a fair bit and get an ARC (not eARC) soundbar. * If you're going to also stream music to this soundbar from your phone, iPad or other device, this is a good choice. Very fast & easy Bluetooth pairing. * If you will stream music directly from your router (Wi-Fi), you're in business because it does that too. * If you want an included Bluetooth subwoofer of excellent quality, it's a good choice. Of course, at this price you will be using a subwoofer, I expect. You'll like the subwoofer. * Operating power consumption is 28W, whereas regular speakers on average use 100W. The soundbar and the subwoofer each draws .5W in standby mode. But use a high quality surge protector with it, because it doesn't have a surge protector built-in. I know this from calling to check since the manual didn't mention it. * If you prefer traditional surround sound, consider that this unit uses Dolby Atmos (or you can use DTS:X). Which one is preferable probably depends more on the room than anything. Dolby Atmos is right for me which is one reason I selected this Q-series soundbar. * This soundbar features 4K Pass-through and HDR. * Handles Alexa voice which may come in handy depending on how you roll and your views on privacy. * Remote control, included, is quite intuitive as expected of Samsung, one of the major brands for soundbars. * If you're going to mount this soundbar, be aware that the brackets are designed such that they're 24" apart. Believe me, this is a heavy soundbar, something I would not personally mount on drywall with mere anchors, but that's me - I don't like creating large holes in the drywall to accommodate anchors; I want to secure something with weight to studs to be more secure. Because the studs in my wall are 16" apart, I'm going to buy brackets separately and use wood screws to put them into the studs. And I'm going to use nano tape to make sure the soundbar is truly secure on the brackets I'll select. At any rate, Samsung doesn't provide screws for the wall. The only screws they provide is for affixing the brackets they include to the soundbar. See my photos to know exactly what I'm talking about. * This is an appropriate soundbar if your TV processes Dolby Digital Plus, but not if your TV only processes Dolby Digital. You want to be able to get Dolby Atmos which isn't possible if your TV doesn't use Dolby Digital Plus. * You can later add 2 back speakers that will connect with Bluetooth to this soundbar. Samsung sells those, of course. I called Samsung to ask about how this soundbar decodes sound for the back speakers, and the guy I spoke with had to get with his manager who concluded I would need to call their expert on this. I was provided the number to call the expert which I will probably get around to in a couple months. * The soundbar itself has 8 speakers. It uses a lot of technology to make extremely sophisticated sound that justifies the price. I'm delighted with it.
- RedPill2021-07-22This is a great upgrade
I've been waiting for the release of the Klipsch 1200 for some time. This week Amazon had what appeared to be a one day killer promotion (1k even) which lured me into trying this. This soundbar is intended to replace a Monitor Audio RX Silver 3 channel setup. And I have 4 MA RX/FX surrounds in the box because my current living room layout does not lend itself to setting up those fairly large surrounds. I was quite skeptical about buying any soundbar, thinking that despite the Atmos effects, the presence and ability to fill a large room with 20' ceilings would disappoint. Last Black Friday I bought a Klipsch 600 on sale for another much smaller room, and later added real surrounds, and while it is OK for that space, I wouldn't consider it for my large LR, so I still had uncertainty about how well a soundbar would work in the large space. (After experiencing how good this sounds, it has lowered my opinion of my Klipsch soundbar since, even with the added Klipsch rears, it pales in comparison to the rich spacious sound that this Samsung produces. I know they are at different price points, but the difference is enough to make me consider replacing them already.) The bottom line is that once I figured out how to Auto EQ the soundbar, I can't begin to express how much the sound fills the room. The sound quality and detail is for me very impressive, and I think you have to be a hardcore audiophile to be disappointed in some meaningful way with this system. I spent thousands on that MA system and feel that at a fraction of that price the audio experience is topped by this. I used to have an SVS sub but got rid of it due to its ridiculously large size and had been using a much smaller ML 700, which was good enough. I would say that by comparison the sub provided and the low frequency performance is even better than what I'd been using, and I like the fact that it has a tall, space-saving form factor. Within days the Klipsch was finally released. I liked the fact that it allows for a second sub, which this Samsung does not. Note I have a much larger LR than most reading this review, 20x20x20, and open on two sides to other rooms, but honestly I am not sure I really need that larger Klipsch 12" sub paired with a second sub. I was debating if I should buy it and try it, but I like the narrow Samsung sub and the integration of features with a Samsung TV. And I should mention that this system is an 11.1.4 system vs the Klipsch 5.1.4. I suspect that is a big reason why it sounds so rich, so I'm not too likely to bother with the 1200s. Just look at the pictures on both websites--I don't know how 5 speakers can compete with 11 (of comparable quality of course) for a surround system. With that said, I have several criticisms of this. 1) Go to the Samsung website and download the full manual. The paper mini-manual is not enough to understand all the functions and proper setup/calibration. Navigating through the configuration setup was completely un-intuitive without the benefit of the detailed steps in the full manual. 2) Display on top is a disadvantage while you are in tinkering and set up mode. Even afterwards, if say you want to adjust the subwoofer volume, you won't know what level you are going from/to unless you open your Smartthings app. Of course if you're not tinkering with settings it doesn't matter. 3) I had an extremely frustrating weekend setting this up in Smartthings. It would go offline, and I tried numerous things like unplugging and removing. I couldn't get it registered within the app for days until the one time I disabled WPA3 and all the advanced security features on my Eero 6 routers and unplugged it. However, once registered, after re-enabling all those and unplugging one more time, it seems to be working and compatible with WPA3. It seems flaky on setup, so I'm offering this experience as something to consider if you have issues with WiFi or registering in the app. The other thing I seemed to notice is that within my Samsung TV, if I switched input from the Q950 ARC to Q950 Wifi, that seemed to go badly. With an HDMI cable, I don't see a need for now to try it again. 4) Honestly, the big disappointment for me is not really getting a sense of anything flying directly overhead. I'm guessing it is due to the 20' ceilings, and/or inability of the calibration to compensate, and the limitations of the room configuration/speaker layout. However, I do experience some sensation of height, and a satisfying sense of sound from all other directions. I have a 2018 Samsung TV, so I don't have the ability to use the SpaceFit feature, so I suspect that upgrading my TV would improve the height sensation. According to the manual, the AutoEQ feature merely calibrates the sub for the low end frequencies, and from my limited experience using the system without it, it made a huge difference in filling the room even before I got the rears working. I suspect that reviewers complaining about the lack of bass may not have AutoEQ'd their system, which is another reason to read the full manual. 5) A big part of my initial problems too was that the surround speakers were producing no sound at all, despite being confirmed paired (by the blue lights). I read on some forum someone mentioning enabling bass enhancement in the app would create this problem. I don't recall if disabling that did resolve the problem, but in the process of troubleshooting with known sources of Atmos enabled video content, once I started testing youtube Atmos test videos, the surrounds finally started working and have worked since. It's completely baffling what made this start working, but now that I'm past that, I'm happy. Hopefully issues like this do not randomly occur over time, as I've only owned these for less than a week now. 6) Maybe on select vocal tracks where the dialog is very prominent, this seems to sound thinner than what my center MA speaker produces, even with AVA on. Maybe it's my imagination. But I don't consider this a valid reason to hang on to the MAs given everything else I'm benefiting from. Samsung support was very responsive. I contacted from within the app and exchanged emails, but none of that really helped to resolve any of my issues. Lastly I will say that I enjoy listening to music (and video) in surround mode. If you're old enough to appreciate The Beatles, try the Atmos mix of Abbey Road available on Apple Music (and maybe elsewhere), which sounds amazing. I'm not sure why people might prefer listening to music in stereo mode with this system, except that it might be more accurate if that is how the source material was designed. I'm not bothering to change modes from surround. Curiously, rtings didn't evaluate this system in surround mode and hence didn't utilize all the speakers.
- Ria2024-05-27Lovely Sound, but Settings Need Updating for Roku
PROS: Affordable, amazing movie theater like sound, worked immediately when hooking up directly to my LG OLED55A1PUA TV. Works flawlessly with the PS5 (tested with YouTube and 4K shows). Immediately worked with my TV remote and Roku remote (volume/muting). CONS: Took me a few days to figure out the proper settings for the Roku Ultra. Every now and then the sound would randomly get distorted/crackly. I tried rebooting the Roku (multiple times); unplugging it and moving it away from the soundbar; different HDMI cables. I tried changing around the sound settings in Roku, but nothing worked. It would be distorted on any apps on Roku (Netflix, Hulu, HBO, YouTube). I googled and found a thread mentioning to manually change the ARC audio setting (on my TV, not Roku) from Auto detect to PCM. Changing this has since fixed my distortion issue and so far no issues with using the Roku. Leaving this review in hopes this fix will help others who are experiencing this issue.
- Jimmy "Tsunami"2024-07-04Works seemlessly with my Samsung TV
Great enveloping sound. I got this too replace a Yamaha sound bar that had constant connectivity issues over HDMI ARC. This has none of those problems. It actually works in conjunction with the TV speakers. Not having Alexa or Google assistant it's actually a positive here.
- Buffy2021-08-202022 UPDATE 1 YEAR LATER: HW-Q950A still sounds amaaazing!
Update August 2022: I've now had this for just over a full year and have no complaints. It still sounds great and have no hesitation in recommending it if you want a compact and easy to install system. In this case compact does not mean a sacrifice in the ooomph you can get in sound. My one request to Samsung would be the option to add additional side speakers as desired. Right now you get two that are spaced apart from the soundbar. I would like to add two or four more at times to literally surround yourself with speakers. Perhaps smaller side speaker add-ons in the future, Samsung? Original review from 2021: Before this I was using a Bose Soundbar from 2018 and this is a great improvement. The main soundbar and center channel have a nice clear sound. With the app you can also choose to enhance the voice which is helpful for some shows and movies. You can adjust the volume level on all of the eleven channels in this system including center, sides, tops, rears if you feel you aren't hearing enough in one area. Most tv shows don't use the sides or rears much, but some movies and Netflix shows you get that added punch and ambience. I wish you could adjust everything in the Samsung app but some volume adjustments have to be done on the soundbar display which is on top of the soundbar. I have found with both the Samsung and Bose soundbars that the sound gets out of sync with a set top cable box. So I finally ditched my cable service and now use online streaming for my live tv and it works good, no more out of sync lips when watching regular tv channels. For the room I have this in the soundbar is more sound than I can actually use without bothering neighbors but I love it. Bass can go big, but more importantly for me center, voice and surrounds sound good. Worth every dollar. Highly recommended for soundbar users.
- Hermes Ten2022-03-25Excellent soundbar with an essentially non functional remote
I was a little reluctant to purchase this soundbar after reading some of the critical reviews but as I have done with other items in the past, I ignored them in the end because this was the choice that seemed best for me, and many of the most critical reviews have not echoed my own experiences with a product. Turns out none of the critical reviews reflected my experience with this soundbar. I have a Samsung 75" crystal TV that integrates with the Q series soundbar. Set up was easy. I read through the instructions expecting complications but all I had to do was plug in the soundbar and the woofer and connect the soundbar with to the TV HDMI ARC terminal. Turning on the TV activated the soundbar and the woofer. The Samsung TV remote controls the volume of the soundbar. That's a good thing because weeks on I am still unable to open the soundbar remote to install batteries. The TV remote was very difficult to open for battery installation but the soundbar remote makes the TV remote a breeze to open by comparison. Fortunately, I've found the balance between mids, highs, and lows to be what I like without have to use the soundbar remote for separate adjustment. Speech is much clearer than with the TV alone and the bass is excellent. The woofer sits on a floor above a basement, not a concrete slab, so it may allow some resonance. We felt it when the alien spacecraft hovered over Roy's truck in Close Encounters. Left-right separation is decent for speakers as close together as they are in a sound bar. Watching the scene in Aliens where Ripley drives to rescue the Marines the sound matched the action on different sides of the screen. Streaming audio is also excellent. The remote allows separate control of the woofer and sound sync adjustment with the picture, as well as general volume control but given the integration between soundbar and TV I haven't found that to be necessary so I haven't been trying too much to get the soundbar remote working. It would just be another remote I'd have to use and it hasn't been necessary. Turning on the television with the TV remote actives the woofer and the soundbar. Placing a DVD into my Sony 4K player makes the TV, soundbar, and woofer come on automatically.
- R. Rutter2024-07-02Easy setup and sounds great!
Super easy to set up using eARC connection. Better sound then from our new LG tv and the bass adds a lot to shows and movies.
- PorterG2022-08-29This is the 3.1 soundbar for people who aren't thrilled with 3.1's
I'd been looking for a soundbar to replace my Samsung 2.1 I've had since 2016. I wanted something with Atmos, even though not a lot of content. I've been through 4 other soundbars, 1 was 5.1.2, two 3.1.2's, and one 2.1.2. The problem I was running into was that the center channel putting out the voice always sounded completely separate from rest of the sound, which is distracting to me (if it doesn't bother you, the LG SP8YA is an awesome deal and great sound, great atmos). Like having the music coming from two speakers and the voice coming from an Amazon Echo. I would be looking right at the center channel. This Samsung, which was my last shot, doesn't have that problem. The voice doesn't sound divorced from the rest. If it's something with harder to hear voice, I can quickly change a setting or two. The Atmos is decent, no better or worse than other Atmos soundbars I've heard (I tried Carnival Row for this). I played a bunch of shows I've rewatched before, like Survivor, Masterchef, and the Amazing Race, and sounds great. Playing Expedition Unknown, I heard audio I've never heard before. Music wise, played a few songs I always use to set up sound, Steely Dan's Aja and Black Sabbath's Heaven And Hell, and sounded pretty good. I'd still use my receiver for those, but, nice to see this hit the notes. Some complain that the bass module is not strong enough, and, granted, I'd rather use the one that came with the old sound bar, but, it does well enough. Highly recommend this soundbar.
- David Altuna2024-03-19Pretty Good Entry Soundbar for Price
TLDR: I wanted to upgrade my TV speakers without dropping a lot of cash. Overall, it's pretty decent. The speakers on my 82" Samsung Q60 aren't very good as it's an entry-level QLED from Costco thats 3 years old. I don't want to go the effort of setting up a real surround sound system, and I don't have the cash nor desire to drop $1k+ on a Bose soundbar or whatever. There are those who say you shouldn't buy soundbars if you're an audiophile, and that the Q600A is entry-level, and not high quality, blah blah blah. Well i can tell you that for a sub-$300 soundbar, it pretty much does exactly what I was going for... wife now complains the TV's too loud & I get an improvement on the TV stereo speakers. My audio setup is via HDMI/e-ARC and I passthrough my iPad Pro through the Soundbar itself (using the HDMI in). If you passthrough the soundbar, you don't get Q-Symphony, but who cares because its overhyped. If you want Q-symphony for some reason, you annoyingly have to connect your device directly to your TV, and not through the soundbar. - Voices - much clearer than TV speakers. *Mostly why I got the soundbar* - Bass - not great but pretty good, size is inconveniently large, it's mostly made of wood - Sound output - supports 5.1, Atmos, & DTS.X - It's probably not the world's greatest Atmos /DTS setup, but I was mostly looking for 5.1, which I'd say it does fairly well. My TV is pretty old so I don't need the upgraded Dolby codecs. - Sound modes - Adaptive, Game, Surround, Standard... Game is what I use as the others sound muffled to me. This is probably the biggest disappointment about the soundbar. I was hoping Adaptive mode would be better. I've read that if you combine it with Rear L & R speakers, it's a much better setup. But thats too much effort. - Speakers - Center, top, and I guess right & left? - Equalizer - You can control Treble, Bass, Center / Top volume through the Soundbar itself. Has to be in Standard mode. No control for the R/L oddly. On my Samsung TV, you can control all the frequencies, again when in Standard mode. - Setup - Not super easy to configure all the settings between the soundbar & my Samsung q60a, but I figured it out. From what I've read HDMI ARC is the way to go, just make sure you plug it into the right HDMI output on your TV, and use the included high-speed HDMI cable - Remote - I like it, it looks almost exactly like my TV remote, and you can control the bass volume very easily - Firmware - I updated it when i got it, pretty easy to do, not sure what it accomplishes though Overall -- As Bubbles would say, the setup is "decent," & it does what I was looking for. 7/10 since the sound modes seem muffled to me except for Game, which works well enough.
- Michael2024-05-10Works great
Works as good as my old which is same brand and still works just regifted the old one to a friend