Samsung HW-N950 Soundbar Review & Comments

Great review as always. Interesting to hear about your experience of Dolby Atmos over ARC as a YouTube video shows his working. I have the K950 and will upgrade to this one day! Once I’ve paid that one off lol!
 
Hey Steve or anyone who has the sound bar, do you know the screw size for the rear speakers as I'll be putting them on stands.

I own the same TV you tested it on so was disappointed to hear that atmos was not working over arc for Netflix.
 
Very interesting bit about the Amaze demo. If it really got that right then that is incredible. It took me a while to set up my system to get that right, so to be able to do that out if the box is pretty amazing.

If this Atmos system was available when I was looking then this would have easily been in my top 2 or 3. But knowing what I know now, the sub is a major weakness. I have had a couple of capable 8" subs which were certainly better than this one and even they were at best limited. So as long as you just need something to go boom and kind of firm up the low end a little then from the sounds of it this is a great Atmos system for the money.
 
Great review Steve. I’m interested in this but also wondering if Yamaha are going to be replacing the (fairly old) YSP 5600. Have you heard any rumours?
 
Great review Steve. I’m interested in this but also wondering if Yamaha are going to be replacing the (fairly old) YSP 5600. Have you heard any rumours?
Was wondering the same thing as the YSP-5600 only has one HDMI 2.2 input and is a few years old now. Ideally want a soundbar that has at least 4 HDMI 2.2 inputs, all HDR formats, Dolby Atmos and DTS X
 
@Steve Withers said:
I tried to send Atmos back to the N950 via ARC. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work, but I'm not sure where the problem lay.

Your review says it uses ARC? Then that is the problem since ARC does not support object based formats. The new version of ARC called eARC does/will support those formats.
 
A heads up
There is £100 cash back via Samsung at the moment. I also got 10% off via a voucher from RS so £100 cb and £150 off therefore paid £1250. The rear screw size is 1/4 inch
Loving the bar.
John
 
A heads up
There is £100 cash back via Samsung at the moment. I also got 10% off via a voucher from RS so £100 cb and £150 off therefore paid £1250. The rear screw size is 1/4 inch
Loving the bar.
John
Great find mate.

P.S. Store customers are led to believe that picture quality improves with cabling. AV enthusiasts know that HDMI = HDMI so picture quality won't improve. Audio is a different matter ;)
 
A heads up
There is £100 cash back via Samsung at the moment. I also got 10% off via a voucher from RS so £100 cb and £150 off therefore paid £1250. The rear screw size is 1/4 inch
Loving the bar.
John

John thank you so much! Thought I'd never find the screw size ha ha. I'll pick some up today and i'll be all set then for delivery for Wednesday. Did you get the power issue resolved where it turned off every hour or was that someone else?
 
Nice review- very interesting...
The biggest flaw with this soundbar is perhaps the omission of the room correction test signal patterns/room EQ set up feature. I'm sure Samsung and Harman Kardon spent a lot of time engineering this piece of gear so why omit a feature which could so easily improve its performance with so little effort?...even without it tho I'm sure this sounds very good...
I own the HW-MS650 Sound+ Soundbar which is pretty decent. But such a hefty price for this HW-N950!...I'd rather drop my money on a separate speaker package and receiver for the same price.
I love the convenience of a soundbar and wireless rears but not being able to place the soundbar in a cabinet beneath my tv as it would block the upwards firing speakers means this would not work for me at all. So actually separate speakers would work better for me if I had an Atmos/dtsX set up.
 
Nope that’s moi
Must have been something I touched.
Will sort it today or try and find how to do a factory reset which should resolve that. Just Got Mad Max Fury 4K for £5.99 on iTunes and Hunt For Red October 4K for £3.99. Will wait for IOS 12 before I watch them.
John
 
Nice review- very interesting...
The biggest flaw with this soundbar is perhaps the omission of the room correction test signal patterns/room EQ set up feature. I'm sure Samsung and Harman Kardon spent a lot of time engineering this piece of gear so why omit a feature which could so easily improve its performance with so little effort?...even without it tho I'm sure this sounds very good...
I own the HW-MS650 Sound+ Soundbar which is pretty decent. But such a hefty price for this HW-N950!...I'd rather drop my money on a separate speaker package and receiver for the same price.
I love the convenience of a soundbar and wireless rears but not being able to place the soundbar in a cabinet beneath my tv as it would block the upwards firing speakers means this would not work for me at all. So actually separate speakers would work better for me if I had an Atmos/dtsX set up.
Before discounts, the cheapest Atmos receiver will be around 300 pounds, Atmos speakers around 1100 pounds minimum. Thats 1400 pounds right there. I have a separates system and I am very happy with it, but especially with the discount mentioned above this doesn't sound like a bad deal. Especially if it really can do Atmos.
 
Nice review- very interesting...
The biggest flaw with this soundbar is perhaps the omission of the room correction test signal patterns/room EQ set up feature.
I wonder if the Samsung is using the Wifi signal to get a rough idea of speaker distances. But as for equalisation that would be an interesting question.
 
Interesting review. Pity that there's only a couple of HDMI inputs. Many TVs don't route audio correctly, either from the embedded apps. or devices connected via HDMI, so can't be used as a glorified switch. Two HDMI inputs don't cut it chez Clem.

Clem
 
@Steve Withers said:
I tried to send Atmos back to the N950 via ARC. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work, but I'm not sure where the problem lay.

Your review says it uses ARC? Then that is the problem since ARC does not support object based formats. The new version of ARC called eARC does/will support those formats.
ARC doesn't support lossless formats but it does support the lossy Dolby Digital Plus format and Atmos is delivered using that for streaming services such as Netflix.
 
Very tempted to get this to go along with my LG E6 TV & finally experience Atmos in my living-room. Only worry is only 2 HDMI inputs. I'd be using my Xbox One-X to play UHD disks/Blu-rays & experience Atmos-compatible gaming. Also got a PS4 Pro & a media-PC to connect too & in the near future, tempted to get the Apple-TV box to play cheap 4K digital media. Would only having 2 HDMI inputs be enough?
 
I wonder if the Samsung is using the Wifi signal to get a rough idea of speaker distances. But as for equalisation that would be an interesting question.

It is an odd omission on a high-end device that relies on flinging sound off the walls etc.

I suppose plug and play is the key thing for soundbars, probably not much demand for complicated set-up procedures from the target consumer.
 
It is an odd omission on a high-end device that relies on flinging sound off the walls etc.

I suppose plug and play is the key thing for soundbars, probably not much demand for complicated set-up procedures from the target consumer.
They have to be working it out somehow either by the user entering the distances/heights or using wifi or some other method. Atmos in particular will be very difficult to get working otherwise.
 
One thing that should be mentioned in these reviews is that bouncing sound of the ceiling is rather dependant on the type of ceiling you have. If you don't have a flat ceiling with basic paint with no patterns etc then it might not work. Also if the ceiling is too high that can cause issues. Potential purchasers should do a little reading of upward firing Atmos speaker reviews to get an idea of the potential pitfalls and maybe even read the Atmos documentation if you are a bit more geeky.
 
I have a LG B7. I am confused, does the B7 pass Atmos to the soundbar via ARC ? The review said he could not get it working, however I am sure I read somewhere that it did.
 
One thing that should be mentioned in these reviews is that bouncing sound of the ceiling is rather dependant on the type of ceiling you have.
I have to ask if you read the review when you make comments like that. Steve went into quite a bit of detail on that very subject. ;)
 
I have a LG B7. I am confused, does the B7 pass Atmos to the soundbar via ARC ? The review said he could not get it working, however I am sure I read somewhere that it did.
According to both Dolby and LG you should be able to send Atmos back via ARC but I couldn't get it to work when I was reviewing the N950.
 

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