Samsung HW-Q800A Soundbar Review & Comments

Got mine setup as well
Hi , hi read it, but in the Samsung official web site, there is only HDR10+, the same as Samsung TV......
My TV is reporting it's getting Dolby Vision from the Apple TV via the soundbar. I did have to swap out a cable that was working perfectly fine with the old soundbar but the TV as the TV was flickering on and off.
 
one thing I found odd is there's no test tone, how are you supposed to set the levels? 🤔
 
Well that's lucky as I've already ordered it! 😁 :thumbsup:

Are you happy with yours?
I am! Very easy to setup. I haven’t had that much of a chance to tweak the speaker levels but it’s pretty much spot on out of the box. I’ll be interested to hear what speaker levels you settle on.

I very nearly ordered the Sony ht-zf9 so I’d also be interested on your opinion of the differences between the 2.
 
I set the Soundbar and Sub up last night and waited until this morning to add the rears. Initial thoughts - plenty of power in a 4 metre by 3.5 metre room (running at volume 20 out of 100). Setup was very easy and I am really pleased with the sound separation. I am pretty much running on the default settings. Only watched a bit of Atmos content as I have been listening to music and test tones. The software update was relatively painless using SmartThings on an iPad. I will give some more thoughts when I have used it for a few days
This is my first Soundbar with Atmos, are there any particular films (scenes) you can recommend to test out the atmos effect?
 
Watching 1917 currently its quite subtle but some good effects e.g. planes flying in from behind
 
Well, I am eagerly awaiting your opinions. Today I bought a LG 48C15 with a promo that gives me the opportunity to have a bonus for another purchase. My first choice is this soundbar, so I'm very interested !!!
 
I am! Very easy to setup. I haven’t had that much of a chance to tweak the speaker levels but it’s pretty much spot on out of the box. I’ll be interested to hear what speaker levels you settle on.

I very nearly ordered the Sony ht-zf9 so I’d also be interested on your opinion of the differences between the 2.
I haven't had chance to listen to it but first impressions is the ht-zf9 has more settings to fiddle with, not sure if that's a good or bad thing 🤔 the Samsung looks nicer under the TV.
 
Been running mine for week or so with the rears (free on current offer) to give more developed initial impressions as a non-specialist user rather than reactions straight out of the box. Linked to QN95A TV and playing Sky downloaded UHD material plus sports together with some UHD Youtube test videos, TV Netflix, Prime and Disney+ apps. Running on E-ARC and adaptive sound mostly, and sometimes on surround sound settings. Couldn't tell any difference. I have compared a few items running the Sky UHD Atmos material versus Blu ray disc e.g. Saving Private Ryan beach invasion which I find is a good workout.

Q Symphony to me is poor when applied. The middle and higher sounds lose depth and to my ear sound a bit tinny when active. Better quality just running the Q800A as the sole sound output - also got rid of regular handshake issues between the soundbar and tv that had it reverting back solely to the TV speakers at intervals or not always handshaking on start up. This is with certified HDMI 2.1 cable. The TV sound on its own is actually quite decent for general viewing.

Q800A is dead easy to set up initially and has lots and lots of power and more than adequate for normal size room, and probably much larger. Not a sign of distortion at higher volumes. To get a more balanced sound in my room I needed to up the volume of the rears a couple of notches and raised both the front and rear heights. I have been thoroughly enjoying the overall rich and robust sound quality so generally very pleased. Very clear sound with nothing muffled even when lots going on. Haven't played around with equalizers other than to up the bass a couple of notches. Musicality sounded good to me linked to iPod. The one issue I have noted is lip sync on sky q live material e.g. news programmes but not on anything else e.g. Sky recordings, blu rays. If I pause the live feed then restart after a few seconds it is pretty much in sync again! I haven't yet tried feeding Sky Q direct to the soundbar HDMI rather through the TV first, and will be giving that a go to see if it makes any difference.

I have run separate 5.1s before but don't have the space now. From memory I am pretty sure that the separates at the front did give a more clearly defined width (duh), though the rear effects unsurprisingly are much the same. That said, some material was giving me a very wide sound stage from the front when I found a sweet spot to sit or stand in. More playing around needed, but so far I like what I hear.
 
Really pleased with this now I have had it installed for a week. It’s running in a 3metre by 4 metre room connected to an LG C9 55”. Real clarity across the tonal range and great separation. I have enclosed some screen shots from the SmartThings app to show some of the settings
85698AB4-2482-4316-90D6-D586EECD8569.png
F8F357FA-4D8E-4617-9E0A-32FF854CF934.jpeg
2C4779E2-5FFF-4A57-931A-9C6C7D8782CF.png
85698AB4-2482-4316-90D6-D586EECD8569.pngF8F357FA-4D8E-4617-9E0A-32FF854CF934.jpeg2C4779E2-5FFF-4A57-931A-9C6C7D8782CF.png
 
Silly question...the HDMI in to this soundbar - is it 2.1? My TV has 2 HDMI 2.1 ports - one for the soundbar and I'm tied between using the other for my PS5 or a 4K blu ray player as the PS5 doesn't do Dolby Vision currently. Will I lose anything in terms of the PS5 picture?
 
Silly question...the HDMI in to this soundbar - is it 2.1? My TV has 2 HDMI 2.1 ports - one for the soundbar and I'm tied between using the other for my PS5 or a 4K blu ray player as the PS5 doesn't do Dolby Vision currently. Will I lose anything in terms of the PS5 picture?

Hi, maybe the best solution is to connect ps5 directly to the tv to not lose anything, then send audio via eArc to the soundbar. Does the player have dual hdmi outputs? in this case you could connect the player to one of the other 2.0 ports of the tv for video and for audio directly to the soundbar. Greetings PS: it's just theory I haven't experienced anything yet, because I will buy the soundbar in a week, according to the promo rules.
 
If anyone is thinking about this PeterTyson are selling this for £699 - so £100 off compared to every other dealer.

 
If anyone is thinking about this PeterTyson are selling this for £699 - so £100 off compared to every other dealer.

But it looks like you do not get the free rear speaker package that you get when buying from JL or Richersounds.
 
As I only bought my Q800A last week from JL I have just submitted an on-line price match request. So will see what they say.
I submitted a price match request and they refunded me £100 :thumbsup:
 
has anyone experienced the soundbar turning off after X minutes when using the optical input?
 
Does one need to connect this to the TV by any particular method to get decent sound to the rear Swa-9500s?

Getting very little sound from them.

I have surround as the sound option.

All very new to this.
 
Does one need to connect this to the TV by any particular method to get decent sound to the rear Swa-9500s?

Getting very little sound from them.

I have surround as the sound option.

All very new to this.
If you want unaltered sound you'll want to set it to standard. What is your source audio?
 
If you want unaltered sound you'll want to set it to standard. What is your source audio?
Currently a 7 series TV.

Having issues....

Optical cable seems to work

HDMI via arc is very temperamental. It works and then drops back to WiFi to the TV.

Currently have the sound set to 'surround' as had assumed that was the best, but will switch to standard on the soundbar.

Unable to connect via Bluetooth to the record player (Akai Professional BT500) - old soundbar was fine to this (HW-M360)

Probably just a lack of knowledge on my part and ignorance.
 
Still can here virtually nothing from the rear speakers. Have to put my ear to it and then I can hear something.

However it is far better than my last soundbar.

Mainly watching Netflix TV shows currently.

I notice that every speaker is set to 0 in the settings. Is that the best to leave it at?

I apologise for now being in my late fifties and not understanding all this!
 

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