we got our hands on Samsung's latest and greatest new flagship soundbar the HW
Q90R Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar it's the successor to last year's already
excellent HW N950 and right off the bat we'll start with this that N950 is a
tough act to follow so what that Samsung improve upon is the Q90 are worthwhile
upgrade let's dive into this review the new model has the same seven-point 1.4
channel layout with a main speaker that sports 3 front to upward and to side
firing drivers there's also a pair of wireless rear speakers with built in
upward firing drivers the Q90R includes an updated Wireless active
subwoofer that uses a rear ported bass reflex design with build and
amplification and a side firing eight-inch driver it is designed to
complement the main sound bar and rear speakers the new sub has been developed
to deliver more effective and accurate bass response over its predecessor and
indeed we found this to be the case with a booming bass explosions a lower
spectrum effect sound very immersive and refilling
also we found that the bass response is much more in sync with the audio there
are two new features that we focus on during our tests one is the addition of
what Samsung calls adaptive sound on paper this mode analyzes the audio and
changes the processing accordingly it also enhances vocals and lower volumes
after taking this feature for a ride with a couple of recent seven-point 1.4
dolby atmos titles we felt like the surrounded justments were mostly hit or
miss however the vocal enhancement worked wonders this is ideal when
watching while someone was asleep at home and you don't want to miss any of
that dialogue the second new features game mode pro it's designed to make
gaming audio more immersive and realistic this feature is mainly
directed at gamers and actually works pretty well for multi-channel game
soundtracks highlighting directionality and effects now many people have asked
us about the Harman Kardon integration on the q9 dr this integration of
Samsung's bar with the Harman Kardon sound to me is first and foremost
designed to improve music playback we tried to listen the stereo music
side-by-side with the older Samsung speakers before the Harman Kardon
collaboration era and the difference is clearly noticeable music playback with
Harman Kardon tuning has a clear advantage with clarity and vocals Harman
Kardon has done its job in terms of tuning the sound margins deliver a
performance that would please even the most demanding music fans the stereo
imaging is impressive with clarity and the vocals and precise placement of
instruments the hwq 9dr gets a solid eight point eight out of 10 for sound
performance next is design and build quality at first glance the q90 r's
appearance looks just like its predecessor the hwn 950 which as you
remember we tested reviewed and still enjoy using we're pleased that Samsung
kept the same solid construction the soundbar retains the same rectangular
shape and minimalist appearance with metal grills on the top front and sides
we still get the dark metal finishes of the edges and yes still only one color
choice which Samsung refers to as carbon silver or simply put black Samsung made
no effort to differentiate this year's appearance from last year's so we might
just have to wait for future models to get a bow 700 or so nose beam style
white option we should also mention that the Q 90 are it's quite wide which means
it's designed for larger screen sizes of 65 inches and bigger actually the entire
sambhar setup in general is designed for larger rooms in general to utilize its
full soundstage potential so just be aware of this when considering the
soundbar so what is new with the design well the wireless active subwoofer has
been slightly redesigned with the clear purpose in mind to improve last year's
bass response and control the redesigned subwoofers still uses a rear base port
side firing eight-inch driver in sports a finish that matches the rest of the
system however the dimensions driver placement and weight are different for
design we gave this bar an eight point two out of ten this brings us to our
final category features and value this sound bar covers almost all the bases it
boasts many of the same features found on last year's hwn 950 including the
ability to decode dolby atmos and BTS x we get the usual 4k pass-through now
with HDR 10 support bluetooth music streaming in the standard one optical
and 2 HDMI ports thankfully the HDMI output this year includes enhanced audio
return channel or EARC allowing the lossless audio to be passed
back from a compatible TV there's Amazon Alexa voice control but for whatever
reason Samsung still doesn't include the microphone and processing built-in so to
use Alexa you'd have to purchase a separate echo device if you're thinking
of getting one of Samsung's latest Q LED TVs we should note that this sound bar
is optimized to work seamlessly with almost all of them this means you could
enjoy plug-and-play connectivity wired or Wireless and control both the TV and
sound bar with Samsung's one remote to adjust the audio directly from the TV
menu the price for the entire system is still on the higher end of the spectrum
but when taking a closer look at the complete set up you get and the
alternative cost of a full the system it seems to be a relatively
fair deal we gave the soundbar an eight point four out of ten for futures and
value before moving on to our final score and verdict you can find out much
more about all the products we mentioned here including specs features and
pricing just hop on in the description of this video below if you have any more
soundbars you'd like us a test in review please drop us a comment below and we
try our best to accommodate with an average score of an eight point five out
of ten who is the soundbar really for well
there are quite a few noticeable improvements over last year's model that
we've discussed in this review nothing drastic but definitely still worthwhile
the Samsung 290 are still proved to be one of the most complete feature rich
and powerful soundbar systems out there for those who are looking to enjoy a
full Atmos experience and have the room size screen size and budget sizes
support it we have a lot more comprehensive tech reviews and
recommendations in our Volt and many more coming up soon so feel free to join
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