Samsung HW-Q800C Soundbar Review: Standout Midrange Performance

Samsung HW-Q800C Soundbar Review: Standout Midrange Performance Leave a comment

Samsung sells a dizzying variety of soundbars, which might make selecting something aside from its multi-speaker Dolby Atmos flagship, the HW-Q990C (or older Q990B), fairly complicated. The HW-Q800C, which sits a step or two beneath the Q990, stands out as a best choice for these trying to dive into 3D soundscapes and nice sound at a extra affordable value.

The Q800C is a chip off the outdated Q990 block, borrowing the identical angular hexagon profile and loads of trickle-down options in a pared-down package deal. As a two-piece system, it’s simpler to include into your listening room than Samsung’s priciest bar, whereas its included subwoofer provides it a cinematic edge over stand-alone choices just like the Sonos Arc and different rivals.

The kicker is you could often decide up the Q800C for nicely beneath its $1,000 MSRP, typically as little as $700, which makes its spectacular sound high quality and beneficiant characteristic set all of the extra attractive. Whereas not with out its limitations, that is a compelling Atmos bar that’s nicely price contemplating on a midrange finances, even when it floats underneath the radar.

Straightforward Setup, Loads of Extras

Samsung makes practically the whole lot easy with its soundbars, although unboxing the Q800C would be the exception. Its L-shaped packaging appears nearly designed to confound, requiring you to open a number of ends to dig the whole lot out. That mentioned, after renegotiating its place and liberating the contents, I had the subwoofer and 46-inch bar in place and belting out sound very quickly.

You’ll more than likely be connecting the system to your TV over HDMI ARC/eARC, which gives the very best sound and simplified management over energy and quantity together with your TV distant. Most newer TVs will discover the bar and ship sound mechanically, however older setups could require you to decide on it as an exterior system. In case your TV is notably seasoned, it’s possible you’ll want to attach over the Q800C’s optical enter, however this negates Dolby Atmos, which sort of defeats the purpose.

The Q800C helps Dolby’s object-based Atmos sound format at full decision from sources like 4K Blu-ray immediately from the bar’s spare HDMI enter, or in compressed type by way of streaming companies. In contrast to Sonos’ and Bose’s high soundbars, the Q800C additionally helps Dolby Atmos’ main 3D-audio competitor, DTS:X, alongside nearly each different main audio format you’ll encounter.

The Q800C gives some Samsung-only tips, together with the power to supply Atmos wirelessly from choose fashions just like the model’s Q-series TVs or work in tandem with their onboard TV audio system by way of the proprietary Q-Symphony system. Customers of any TV can get pleasure from different fashionable options like a built-in voice assistant by way of Amazon Alexa, and Spacefit sound calibration to mechanically analyze your room and alter efficiency accordingly (although I’m undecided I heard a lot enchancment there).

Connecting the bar to your Wi-Fi community by way of the SmartThings app allows you to dig into settings like channel ranges and EQ, and logging on unlocks high-quality streaming over Spotify Join, Tidal Join, and Apple AirPlay. Google’s Chromecast is conspicuously absent (within the US model anyway), however Bluetooth streaming is out there in its place.

Thrilling, Swirling Sound

{Photograph}: Samsung

After spending numerous hours listening to Samsung’s newest soundbars, it was no shock to seek out that the Q800C serves up sensible sound throughout all kinds of content material. The sound profile is highlighted by full-bodied midrange and bass frequencies, treble that sings with candy lyricism in brass and strings, and stable dynamics that carry out the whole lot from refined dialog to potent explosions (or each without delay) with tempered stability.

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