Samsung HW-Q800A Soundbar Review & Comments

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!
The idea of the individual levels is so that you can adjust each set of speakers to the same volume at your listening location, so you can increase the rears until you're happy.
 
My rear speakers are less than 2 feet from my head. The rear speakers face in to the room but each also has an upward firing speaker. My rear level is set to 1 and rear top level set to 3 and that works for me.
 
I bumped up both the rear speaker level and height to 2, which works for me. Rears give a good contribution now. May also of course be affected by the material being played. May be worth trying other sources such as discs for testing purposes.
 
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!
download sound meter app, and perfom sound test.

Then adjust sound levels based on that.
 
My rear speakers are less than 2 feet from my head. The rear speakers face in to the room but each also has an upward firing speaker. My rear level is set to 1 and rear top level set to 3 and that works for me.

Where / how are you setting the levels for the rear speakers. In the Samsung iOS app I can only see the level setting for the sub.
 
Where / how are you setting the levels for the rear speakers. In the Samsung iOS app I can only see the level setting for the sub.
You have to use the remote. Press the cog and then you can scroll through, you should have rear level and rear top level.
 
Has anyone managed to get alexa setup and working? I have connected my account, if I press and hold the power button I can give alexa a command but if I just say "alexa" nothing happens.
 
Has anyone managed to get alexa setup and working? I have connected my account, if I press and hold the power button I can give alexa a command but if I just say "alexa" nothing happens.
Alexa is responding OK to my voice command.
 
Alexa is responding OK to my voice command.
Thanks, I spoke to support and they wanted me to reset the soundbar, wasn't keen as I'd have to go through the setup again. I've reset it and now it's working :thumbsup:
 
I had to reset my sound bar to get Alexa to work. It was also giving me US time until I changed the time zone in the Alexa app. We have 3 other Echo devices and it sometimes competes with them to answer a question :)
 
I had to reset my sound bar to get Alexa to work. It was also giving me US time until I changed the time zone in the Alexa app. We have 3 other Echo devices and it sometimes competes with them to answer a question :)
Interesting, seems like a known issue then.

I'm only using it temporarily as the show in our living room died, will pick up a new one on prime day. I wasn't going to bother but I was surprised at how many times I said "alexa do x/y/z" and nothing was happening.
 
Hi, today I finally bought this soundbar. The first impressions are positive, for now the only problem is the volume level changes, for example when listening to a movie on Amazon Prime Video, where there is a lot of difference between speech and music.
What's the secret to making it better?
I have some questions: is it mandatory to have a Samsung account to use the Smartthings app?
Is there a possibility to know what kind of signal (Dolby, DTS, etc. etc.) it is receiving?
Anyone in possession of an OLED C1? I knew that it was not possible to play DTS tracks, but today I played a blu ray disk, with DTS tracks connected to the TV but via eArc the signal was transmitted correctly to the Soundbar. Now I am waiting for the rear speaker kit to be available here in Italy. Thank you for your answer
 
I’m testing a Q800a with rear speakers at the moment. Used all sound modes.
When watching a film like 1917 you can hear the rear speakers well in any mode but watching normal tv rear speakers are silent even in surround mode. Is this normal?
 
Hi, I have another question: I did a test connecting my blu ray player to the hdmi in port of the soundbar but I don't get a correct image, the colors are all altered. I tried with Nitendo switch instead and everything works fine. Since my hdmi cables are old I used that
of Switch with blu ray but nothing changes. What can it depend on? thank you
 
Bought this bar last week and connected via eArc. Can’t seem to hear any difference between D Atmos effects from built In Netflix app from DD. Haven’t tried yet UHD discs with Atmos sound. Have you guys noticed a difference in streaming on Atmos. Don’t have optional rear speakers and not connected to Alexa.

Also the sub seems to be quite, checked to see if it’s on and the blue light is on, which means it’s connected to the bar.
 
I bumped up both the rear speaker level and height to 2, which works for me. Rears give a good contribution now. May also of course be affected by the material being played. May be worth trying other sources such as discs for testing purposes.
Hi @PondLife65 do you know if this bar passes HLG hdr through
 
Yes. It passes through all video formats including DV even though Samsung TVs don't support DV. You can check the specs on the Samsung website to confirm rather than take my word for it 🙂
I always find it better to trust someone who has actually used the bar and seen for themselves, from what I can see on the website it says hdr format hdr10+, so good to know that it does Dolby vision and HLG so thanks for answering
 
I always find it better to trust someone who has actually used the bar and seen for themselves, from what I can see on the website it says hdr format hdr10+, so good to know that it does Dolby vision and HLG so thanks for answering
It's also covered in the avforums review!
 
Is Samsung HW-Q800A compatible with SWA-9100S/ SWA-9000S? Or only new SWA-9500S ?
 
Hey guys. They got this on offer for £799 which includes the rear speakers. Offer ends next week and thinking to jump on it as the LG bars are too big for my setup. Major concern is the subwoofers which I keep hearing is quiet. Do you guys reckon this is worth the price?

Currys Offer
 
Hey guys. They got this on offer for £799 which includes the rear speakers. Offer ends next week and thinking to jump on it as the LG bars are too big for my setup. Major concern is the subwoofers which I keep hearing is quiet. Do you guys reckon this is worth the price?

Currys Offer
John Lewis have it for the same price and they offer a 2 year guarantee, they also price matched Peter Tyson at £699 even though they weren't adding in the rear speaker offer. Not sure if it's still £699 at Peter Tyson and can't guarantee they'll price match again.
 
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Thanks. I'm so conflicted about these. I promised myself that I'll never buy another Samsung product again but this looks to be a very good deal and every thread here has comments complaining of bugs and other issues for all the other brands.
 
Hi, I have another question: I did a test connecting my blu ray player to the hdmi in port of the soundbar but I don't get a correct image, the colors are all altered. I tried with Nitendo switch instead and everything works fine. Since my hdmi cables are old I used that
of Switch with blu ray but nothing changes. What can it depend on? thank you

Hello everyone, if you are interested I have solved. On the HDMI input of my Oled C1 TV, to which I connected the soundbar, I disabled the Deep Color option so now the video from the blu-ray passes correctly. Now the DTS: X audio type is displayed correctly, while before when the player was connected to the TV, the audio went through but DTS: X was not reported. Then I saw that Dolby Atmos is correctly displayed when I use the TV streaming apps. However, the type of input audio is not reported for non-Atmos or Dts: X tracks. I also managed to connect it to WiFi and check the firmware version via the app. For now I have not yet been able to appreciate the Atmos channels, I have not felt much difference ...I hope the best with the addition of the two rear ones, Regards
 
Hey guys. They got this on offer for £799 which includes the rear speakers. Offer ends next week and thinking to jump on it as the LG bars are too big for my setup. Major concern is the subwoofers which I keep hearing is quiet. Do you guys reckon this is worth the price?

Currys Offer
My sofa positively vibrates with the deep bass on Atmos movies. I never have the volume set above 25 (out of 100) and the Subwoofer is set to +2 (out of -6 to +6)
 

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