Samsung HW-K850 Dolby Atmos Soundbar Review & Comments

Again great review Steve. I was a little surprised to see a review for this tho since I think you already reviewed the identical model with the 2 rear speakers...?
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I think 8 out of 10 is far, far too generous a score for this item especially if we consider "10" the absolute pinnacle in audio quality (not to mention the fact that this unit is lackluster in reproducing any type of rear effects).
I'm pretty sure the upcoming Sony HT-ST5000 will blow this out of the water so I'll be expecting an score of "10" for that! :)
 
Again great review Steve. I was a little surprised to see a review for this tho since I think you already reviewed the identical model with the 2 rear speakers...?
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I think 8 out of 10 is far, far too generous a score for this item especially if we consider "10" the absolute pinnacle in audio quality (not to mention the fact that this unit is lackluster in reproducing any type of rear effects).
I'm pretty sure the upcoming Sony HT-ST5000 will blow this out of the water so I'll be expecting an score of "10" for that! :)
It is essentially the same as the K950, aside from not having rear speakers, but I do think both are great soundbars in their own right. The biggest issue for me is the limited DTS support but like you I have high hopes for the Sony HT-ST5000.
 
Thanks for this review Steve and I think cost will limit sales in particular. Was there much of an impact on the acoustics bearing in mind your concrete floor is not fully covered at the moment? Is it time to introduce half scores to reviews ( i.e. 7.5 or 8.5 ) in view of some of the finer margins?
 
Lets hope Sony don't charge the touted £1,500 for the HT-ST5000
 
900 quid that's out of my budget range
 
It is essentially the same as the K950, aside from not having rear speakers, but I do think both are great soundbars in their own right. The biggest issue for me is the limited DTS support but like you I have high hopes for the Sony HT-ST5000.

A score of 8 out of 10 makes more sense I guess as I assume you would have been comparing it to all soundbars, and not seperates- apologies for mistake or misunderstanding on my part.
Yes, I am super excited for the Sony soundbar as it seems like it can be carefully calibrated to suit rooms with different ceiling heights and I think my new living room is the ideal layout to get the most from the Sony.
I just hope it will also support dts-X and the lack of rear speakers will not be a huge loss.
I think it will around 1500 quid, which is a helluva lot, but let's see how it performs...
 
Was there much of an impact on the acoustics bearing in mind your concrete floor is not fully covered at the moment?
There are flagstones on the floor of the lounge, always has been, but there's usually a thick rug over them to stop reflections. However it's a fairly reflective room at the best of times, which is why critical listening is done in the acoustically treated home cinema. Although the low reflective ceiling in the lounge does work wonders with upward-firing Atmos speakers.
 
There are flagstones on the floor of the lounge, always has been, but there's usually a thick rug over them to stop reflections. However it's a fairly reflective room at the best of times, which is why critical listening is done in the acoustically treated home cinema. Although the low reflective ceiling in the lounge does work wonders with upward-firing Atmos speakers.
Apologies as I thought you were having some work done at the moment and it looked like a concrete base on first viewing. I have the same acoustic issue in our lounge with a wooden floor and a couple of rugs etc assist in dampening unnecessary sound reflection etc.
 
A question to K850 owners, how do you find Atmos effects on it? I'm stuck between this, YSP-2700 and K950..
 
this comes free with samsung blueray player at John Lewis now
 
has anyone tried adding rears to this.

also is this the exact same unit as the 950 apart from not having the rears
 
Some good reviews and opinions, Tempted to get the 850 version of this to replace my Sony HT XT3, can get it for £749.99 at the moment, seems a great price!
 
£748.99 from Hughes with a free blu Ray player, bargain! Will offload the player to get cost down, now to set it up.
 
All set up and recabled, blu Ray direct to soundbar/arc to one connect box Xbox & Sky Q Direct to one connect for now, very impressed so far, tv may be getting in the way of the up-firing speakers a bit so will need to look at that but great so far!
 

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Hi all, can any owners tell me weather or not you can attatch this soundbar in any way to a cantilever TV stand as opposed to mounting on the wall? Im having a nightmare finding the right soundbar with Atmos that will fit on my stand. Thanks in advance.
 
I have the 850 and have added a couple of Samsung R1s as rear speakers. This seems to be an effective pairing but to be honest there's so much sound coming from the front and the Sub that the rears are sometimes hard to make out. I've also turned the sound bar into my main speaker hub - by using an input source selector I've added a CD player, Sonos Connect and an amplified record deck to the analog audio-in port. I've also connected a YouView box and Samsung DVD player into the mix.

First impressions are that this much better than you might expect with an open dynamic sound with bags of details that's an instant attention grabber. I have Dali 5 speakers connected to a good Marantz amp and I must admit to a preference for the sound from the soundbar. Tele wise my previous sound setup was via an Onkyo 706 amp driving KEF Egg 2001 with the Kube 2 Sub but the Sub went U/S. This is subjective I know but I actually prefer the sound from the soundbar! The Samsung Sub takes a bit of taming - volume turned down as far as it will go. On that subject it would be useful if, in the original review, Steve could have said what he did to get the Sub to better integrate with the bar. I think that holds true of any instances where the team have had to play a bit to get the sound to their liking - explain what they did and what effect it had.
 
Just wanted to say that these are now £899 in Currys but if you get them on their payment plan they knock £200 off. No need to pay interest either, it's interest-free for 6 months and you can pay off any time. Just bought one myself and waiting for more stock to come in...will let you know how long that takes!
 
Just bought this sound bar and wow! The Atmos sound just blows me away. The last surround setup I had was pro logic selling my 2 Sonos play 3 speakers cos I prefer the sound from the Samsung
 
has anyone tried adding rears to this.

also is this the exact same unit as the 950 apart from not having the rears
Did you ever find an answer to this question?
Pete
 
how will this now compare to the sony ZF9. Both are now priced at roughly GBP 500
 
Hi all, dont suppose anyone could help with an issue whereby by K850 turns itself off after 1 minutes of playing something. (cables replaced, different source tried)
 

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