A portion of this video is sponsored by GROWATT
In case there was any doubt this Soundbar system right here is proof positive that
getting truly great cinematic sound doesn't also have to be a great big pain in the
Welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and today we're going to talk about the Samsung q990b Dolby
Atmos Soundbar system Samsung calls this an 11.1.4 Channel Wireless Dolby Atmos Soundbar and I'll
explain what that means shortly but let me set the stage for this review a bit first off I do have
some extremely positive things to say about this Soundbar system but I also want a flag that this
review isn't going to be an unadulterated gush Fest I have a few complaints that I think you need
to hear about moreover though I want to take this review as an opportunity to talk about whether a
soundbar system like this can really deliver Dolby Atmos at home and along with that could
you potentially build something better sounding for around the same price which let's not kid
ourselves is a bit on the Steep side considering sound bars at least started out as being a simpler
yes but also more affordable way to improve your TV sound also talk about how this Soundbar fares
against the competition like the Sony HTA 9000 the Vizio Elevate and a couple of others I'm actually
pretty excited about this review and I hope that you are too real quick though the Samsung q990b
here sells for about thirteen hundred dollars what do you think about that can any sound bar system
sound good enough to justify spending over a grand let me know about that down in the comments and
while you're down there if you like what you see and hear today would you let me know by Smashing
that like button perhaps add us to your carefully curated list of subscriptions oh and there's a
bell you can ring to if you want to see more of this face in your feed that's business done let's
dig into this Soundbar so let's start with design both aesthetic and functional now in terms of
appearance the q990b here is not so much a pretty pony as it is a Workhorse the Samsung q950a that
predates this sound bar as well as the Klipsch Cinema 1200 and a number of other sound bars I can
think of they often feature speaker Grill cloth on the exterior which looks nice but can be a pain
as that Grill cloth in my experience at least has been prone to bunching up or stretching out over
time instead we have metallic grills here which lend a more industrial vibe that I am 100 good
with the sound bar itself is a bit of a beast I mean it's not trying to win any massive sound from
a tiny box Awards and again I'm 100 good with that the less you try to cheat physics with digital
signal processing AKA DSP the better in my opinion the trade-off though is that its height could be a
problem for some stand mounting situations I mean I haven't made it to a Samsung s95b TV here and
if I place it on top of the TV's pedestal it just barely flirts with the bottom edge of the screen
though it isn't stopping any remote signals from getting to the TV in this particular case if your
TV uses an IR sensor for its remote that could be an issue for you if you're wall mounting though
none of that matters the surround speakers are also not tiny but they aren't bookshelf speaker
sized either in fact I think their size just right the subwoofer is well it's a bit larger
than the sub that comes with a lot of sound bar systems but it's nowhere near as gargantuan as
the unapologetically massive sub that comes with the eclipse Cinema 1200. now one of the things I
like about the q990b is its Cable Management on the sound bar there is just enough space to fit
up to three HDMI cables for the two inputs and the e-arc connection and I love how cleanly the power
cables on the surround speakers route out of the bottom of the speakers what I do not love though
is the length of the power cords the three foot long quartz provided work okay for the subwoofer
and the sound bar I suppose but and I realize I'm scaling a slippery slope here because too
long could also be considered undesirable but look this three foot cable doesn't cut it for me on the
surround speakers if you're super lucky to have a power outlet on both sides of the room great but
most folks aren't and that means you'll need extension cables especially if your priority
is putting the surround speakers right where they need to be to get the best sound I mean look what
I had to do here not sexy at all and also tenuous at best now functionally speaking this system was
designed for high quality performance in total there are 22 drivers powered by a sum of 656 Watts
there are four drivers in each surround speaker which I'll explain in a moment an 8-inch driver
in the sub and that puts 13 in the sound bar two up firing Atmos drivers two drivers coming off
each side for width and then three shootings straight into the room though it looks like
there may be some passive radiators in there too hard to tell for sure but I'll confirm that with
Samsung later now back to those surround speakers in each one you get an up firing Atmos driver one
pointing straight out and then you get one on either side of the speaker in what it looks like
and sounds like a dipole design which means that it's not only providing some directional surround
sound but also some out of phase non-directional surround and that is a really cool design as for
setup the q990b is about as plug and play as it gets I plugged everything into Power connected
an HDMI cable to the ERC Port of the s95b OLED and not only did the wireless surrounds and subwoofer
auto connect but the Samsung TV detected the sound bar and automatically engaged Q Symphony sound
which uses the TV speakers to enhance the Sound Stage and that's available with I think most if
not all of Samsung's qled TV lineup now you could also connect the soundbar to select Samsung TVs
wirelessly no HDMI cable which is convenient and it's not Bluetooth you get better Fidelity than
with Bluetooth but for the best possible sound I recommend the HDMI connection which also lets
you use the sound bar as a hub for two other HDMI devices if you want now I personally have had no
connection issues at all here no dropouts of the surround speakers which I've heard has been an
issue for some also no Dropout of the sub either though admittedly I don't have a massive room here
I'm going to try and stress test that later and update this review but honestly I've had my hands
full testing a bunch of different performance aspects as for control there are a lot of drivers
in this system and Samsung lets you control every one of them with awesome granularity now this
little display on the right front of the Soundbar will let you know which channel you're adjusting
but I find it pretty difficult to read that's one reason I suggest getting the Samsung SmartThings
app not only does the app make adjusting Channel and Driver levels easier but it also is the only
way to customize tone or EQ controls outside of some of the sound profile presets built into the
bar presets by the way which don't even need to be there as I'm about to explain hey I just
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Okay so let's dive into sound quality but before I start detailing how this system sounds let's
address that question of whether this Soundbar can really deliver Atmos surround effects now if you
aren't familiar with Dolby Atmos here's a full explainer video you can check out but basically
Atmos adds discrete height sound it aims to enhance the sound field by adding top-down sound
for a sort of Dome of sound effect in the theaters this is handled by a bunch of speakers mounted in
the ceiling and firing down at home you can get Dolby Atmos in a similar Way by using in-ceiling
speakers or down firing conventional speakers or you can use up firing speakers that bounce sound
off the ceiling like the ones in this system now the up firing bouncy sound approach really does
require that you have a flat ceiling that isn't super elevated for the best effect and ideally
you don't have acoustic tiles and a drop ceiling like we do in this office since those are meant
to try to absorb a little sound not reflected fortunately even acute tiles reflect some sound
and I've been able to get a decent Atmos effect in this room using much beefier speaker systems like
the clips reference Premiere and even Pioneers Andrew Jones designed Elite speakers so I do have
a reference here now to test the system's Atmos sound potency I did a few things first I dropped
the level of every driver in the system except the up firing drivers to their lowest setting and
I maxed out the level of the up firing driver so they would be the loudest source of sound in the
system I also did a series of a b tests wherein I compared the system with Atmos drivers Juiced
up versus the system where I reduce the levels of the atmos drivers and even covered them up so they
were basically completely out of play with that in mind there are a number of scenes in Marvel's
doctor strange and the Multiverse of Madness that are excellent exhibits of Atmos mixing and then
of course there's the opening sequence of Mad Max Fury Road as well as a few moments in gravity and
Blade Runner 2049 that I like to use now folks let me be absolutely clear the Samsung q990b's
Atmos effect price is the truth the scene in Multiverse of Madness where the organ plays the
bridal processional in the church without the atmos speakers I still got a pretty good sense
of space and Reverb but with the atmos channels engaged I could hear the ceiling of the church the
difference was Stark not Tony Stark he's dead now just really apparent over and over again without
Atmos versus with Atmos the difference was almost palpable like I could reach out and touch it and
I don't even have the best ceiling conditions for Atmos here I can't wait to check this out at home
where I currently have the Klipsch Cinema 1200 set up now just to make sure that I wasn't nuts
or imagining things I went and checked out my friend Andrew Robinson's review on this
Soundbar and was pleased to see he was similarly enthusiastic check out his channel if you haven't
by the way really solid work on everything that he and Christy review but honestly the atmos is just
the icing on an already super decadent cake folks The q990b Sounds Exquisite it challenges the very
concept of what a sound bar can do the Fidelity I mean the detail the timbre the accuracy the
presence The Sound Stage the continuity once I dialed this system in for my setup and this room
it was nothing short of outstanding the subwoofer is far more capable than I was prepared for I mean
it's a little Hefty out of the box I needed to rain it back a little bit but not only does it
have depth and weight but it's pretty agile too and musical even this whole system sounds really
satisfying for music on top of movies in fact musically speaking I prefer the q990b to the
cinema 1200 for music which I totally did not see coming compared to the Sony HTA 9000 I feel like
the q990b is just a bit more impressive the HTA 9000 pulls off some insanely cool psychoacoustics
but it really relies on a phantom Center Channel or a Sony TV to pull off pinpoint dialogue Clarity
and localization and the q990b is just better in fact the center channel Clarity is possibly the
best I've heard from any Soundbar I've tested now I could go on and on about the sound but
I'm running out of time and adjectives I guess I just sum up my experience as shockingly impressive
deeply immersive tons of fun and surprisingly satisfying so you may not be shocked then to
learn that I think the q990b earns every single cent of its asking price no question the clip
Cinema 1200 offers a comparable experience but it costs hundreds more same story with
the Sony HTA 9000 which is also very impressive and capable but hundreds more and when compared
to the P-Series Vizio Elevate there's just no getting around the fact that the q990b sounds
bigger has more Authority and can handle filling up much larger rooms but could you build something
better sounding for about the same price I suppose so yeah I mean Monoprice has a
fairly impressive little 5.1.4 setup though the subwoofer isn't as potent as I'd like so
I'd upgrade that and then I'd want to get a high quality AV receiver like the Onkyo NR 6100 so that
and some quality speaker cable and a subwoofer cable and some time spent on cable management
I suppose you'd get close but like I said at the top of this video I think most folks these
days are looking for truly great cinematic sound that isn't a truly great pain in the
behind and also not outrageously expensive and for that I've got to say that Samsung q990b is
about the best there is I mean yeah wow thanks so much for watching everyone I hope you liked
the review let me know what you think in the comments don't forget to like And subscribe
I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like