Review of the soundbar Samsung Dolby Atmos HW-Q900T

Hey.

From my living room I hear the roar of the engine, even from the kitchen, I can hear the car accelerating on a straight line to sharply slow down before turning. The sound is concealed by the corridor, but knowing the route, one can imagine exactly where the children are “driving”. Some time ago they got fed up with racing, now children prefer football, regular adventure games with friends in multiplayer worlds. But now racing is back in favor, the virtual dust has been shaken off the game due to the appearance of a soundbar from a large QLED TV in the living room. New experience, different perception of games due to the changed sound.

Why do I need a soundbar, I already have an excellent TV, it has a lot of speakers and good sound – this question is asked by many people, I am no exception. The first time I answered it simply: I want to listen to music in the living room, but not through the TV, but through separate speakers. And I decided to combine my desires, got a soundbar, which allowed both listening to music and getting a different sound for films and TV shows. I remember very well the moment of first switching on and how different the sound was, it became more spacious, filled the room. A typical mistake of a beginner was that he chose the soundbar tightly, because he did not understand how much he would have to be in the court, what it would become in everyday life. Reading reviews of experts from audio technologies did not add clarity, from the texts I got the idea that any soundbar is good compared to listening to sound without it. Until I started using it myself, I did not understand what and how should work, what is important and what is not.

My set of wishes for a soundbar in 2020 was formed from my previous experience. You may have it different, and that’s okay. I will briefly list what I wanted to see in such a device:

strict, laconic design with no frills;
the possibility of both wired and Wi-Fi connection;
both a separate remote control and control from the TV remote control;
availability of HDMI for connecting external devices, for example, a game console;
listening to music from a smartphone, Wi-Fi connection;
surround sound, so that the sound envelops in the living room (more on this later);
the ability to work with 4K video.

The set of wishes is standard and quite simple; a huge number of soundbars will fall into these conditional requirements. Since I have a QLED TV from Samsung, I primarily looked at the soundbars of the same company. In the end, I was bribed by the presence of Q-Symphony, this technology synchronizes the speakers of the TV and soundbar, increases both the power of the sound and its volume. In theory, this all sounded good; in practice, it was completely incomprehensible how big the difference was. A survey of friends showed that they do not have similar models with Q-Symphony, many said that their soundbar plays perfectly and they do not understand why something should be checked, looked for and studied. Finally, a person was found who categorically stated that he would provide an opportunity to listen and hear the difference.

We killed half a day listening to his two TVs and lugging a soundbar between them. On a large QLED TV from the latest range, the sound itself is good, but the soundbar gives it a different level of sound. This was expected, no surprises here. We turned Q-Symphony on and off to feel the difference and understand how important it is. They used a Dolby Atmos YouTube demo and 6 Underground from Netflix to evaluate what the Q-Symphony sounds like. In the first case, the video itself is designed to show the advantages of surround sound, and this effect is not always achievable in films or games. In the second case, it is a regular film with Atmos technology. A quick comparison showed that the TV speakers add volume to the sound image, the difference is not overwhelming, but the immersion is more noticeable in this case. Our perception is a subjective thing, and therefore we came to the conclusion that Q-Symphony is a useful thing, but one should not expect any huge leap in perception. Our problem was that we knew when this technology was enabled and when it was not. Arranged impromptu blind testing on my friend’s daughter, she, not knowing when and what works, each time unmistakably said that she liked the sound with this technology better.

To make you realize the difference and understand what to evaluate, and it is difficult to describe these differences, I will give an example with smartphone screens. The refresh rate of the screen at 60 Hz is usual for most models, the flagships allow you to work with a frequency of 120 Hz. Smooth scrolling of lists, other animation – all this the eye hardly distinguishes, it seems that there are no differences as such. But after you start using the 120Hz screen, you cannot refuse it. Going back to 60 Hz creates a subtle inconvenience, something is wrong. The story is exactly the same with sound, you cannot estimate it in numbers, but you feel that when the TV speakers are involved, the sound picture is much more interesting.

I decided that I would watch Samsung soundbars, the use of TV speakers bribed me, especially since there are six of them in my TV model and they are quite good (tracking sound, creating surround sound, high volume). I looked at what is offered from a dozen models, Q950 and Q900 turned out to be new, these are top-end solutions. For me, the Q950 is overkill as it comes with two speakers for mounting behind the listener. In my living room, the sofa is almost against the wall, the space on the sides is occupied by tables, other furniture, you can squeeze the speakers there if you want, but it’s difficult. It is impossible to place them behind, so the need for them disappears by itself.