From the specs page.
OFF/Standby = 1.23 watts consumption
ON = 88 watts consumption
I've given up on the internal system digital EQ which apparently has no memory. Yes, we all want an EQ like that ... said no one ever.
I just turn it off at night, I found the TV sounds best in Standard mode when there's no system EQ applied, as the surround mode has too much sub in it for me, even when the sub is turned down to -12 later at night.
The sub needs a mute, Samsung! I've never had a high-powered surround system where the sub could not be muted.
Samsung, would you like to live next door to someone with a Q950T which has no mute option on their sub?
No, you would not.
The 88 watts operating wattage can't be with no signal, as 88 watts is still a fair bit of heat to dissipate, and this unit runs at practically ambient temperature when on.
I've looked in the power consumption figures this morning, because I did some fairly loud sound testing yesterday afternoon, which refined the settings a lot more. Most of the louder testing was at Vol=42, for a couple of hours.
After which time I checked the
thermal dissipation situation. I expected there to be a fair amount of accumulated heat as I had the windows and doors closed up for most of it, but there was very little warmth. The bar was slightly warmer around the display button area, and part of the way along the top rear. The rest of the bar was at ambient levels. When facing the grill the satellites had a small warm spot on the lower right-hand side of both cabs. This was ever so slightly warmer than the middle of the bar.
But the biggest surprise was the sub. I couldn't find a warm area on any part of the sub! It was as if the sub had been turned off the whole time. Check this yourself if you don't believe me. I was sure it would be warmest by far. There wasn't even a warm area near to the power lead input. It was cool to the touch everywhere!
Which is in line with my general impression that the sub is still only idling, but it's still thudding down deep. I performed this testing with the PC's output gain set to unity, and both channels of all music files on my system get saved at 90% of available file format head room, i.e. they are all at -0.915% of unity gain level.
So at vol=42 it's getting a bit uncomfortable to be just 1 meter from the center of this system's full range tuned sound bar, listening to decompressed full dynamic range sound files in mostly rock music, and power-ballads, etc. The system gets a bit loud at this volume and a NET -0.915 dB input gain level.
So I'm amazed this sub was cool as a cucumber after 2 hours. How? What an amazingly efficient power-amp this sub must have, to be making no detectable warmth! I'm guessing the power amp is capable of delivering a lot more wattage than the sub's speaker can take. This sub just continues to be a surprise. Samsung got that part of the Q950T very right.
Here's the EQ setting I ended up with fine-tuning it at higher volume. I had to back off both the top and bottom.
Surround mode
Equalizer APO 15-Band
Hz | dB
25 = -6.9 dB (almost a 7dB cut at 25Hz to balance the bottom with the rest of the music)
40 = -4.0 dB (4 dB drop at 40 Hz. I've always had to boost these frequencies in the past)
63 = -12.95 dB (I'm used to seeing big drops here but usually only 9 to 10 dB)
100 = -8.36 dB (this was also a bigger than normal cut.)
160 = -4.1 dB
250 = 0.0 dB
400 = -3.82 dB
630 = -9.98 dB
1,000 = -9.9 dB
1,600 = -8.4 dB
2,500 = -6.7 dB
4,000 = -2.68 dB (I had to back off the tops above 4kHz once volume went up)
6,300 = 0.27 dB
10,000 = 5.17 dB
16,000 = 14.35 dB
View attachment 1364270
Keep in mind that I already have the sub turned down to -3 for this.
I tuned the top detail with
Sam Brown's 1990 'April Moon' album as it has really gorgeous open vocal highs and delicate tinkley bits, plus some lovely subtle reverbs and deep lows. It also has some deep woofy double-bass within some songs. Plus a huge deep reverberant kick-drum sound in one of the songs. If you're unfamiliar with her she was a Pink Floyd backing vocalist for several years. Pink Floyd's guitarist, David Gilmour does backing-vocals for Sam Brown on this album.
I then moved on to a smorgasbord of classic hard rock songs, then some very low bass tone songs to make sure the bottom was still inline with the rest of it. I'm fairly happy with the final EQ tuning, it's not that far now from where I'll leave it. The adjustment response curve illustrates nicely how the system drivers perform in
surround mode.
You may be looking at the decimal places above and thinking it's not possible to parse an EQ band gain on a 15-band EQ at this +/-0.05 dB level by ear. And I would have thought the same thing. Except with this system's sound field I can hear EQ band gain differences on that level. I could barely unambiguously discern a 0.2 dB gain change with VLC's 10-band EQ with my last PC surround system.
The level of clarity the Q950T has is astounding. I'm hearing songs which I know very well and hearing vocal lyrics with excellent breathy diction. I can hear each word clearly, so I now know what the lyrics really say, as opposed to what I thought they said. I'm also hearing backing instrument sounds which I didn't know were in the mix as well. This is a stunning reproduction and music image. I thought that from day-1, and it's impressed me more each day since.
These are the system settings which go with the above EQ tuning if you wished to replicate that with your own PC:
SURROUND MODE
TREBLE = 0
BASS = -6
SYNC = 0
CENTER LEVEL = -6
SIDE LEVEL = -6
WIDE LEVEL = -6
FRONT TOP LEVEL = -5
REAR LEVEL = +5
REAR TOP LEVEL = +6
VIRTUAL = OFF
SUBWOOFER = -3