Samsung HW-S800 Dolby Atmos Soundbar Review & Comments

A general question about soundbars that offer Atmos support; the usual line is that surround speakers are roughly in line with your ears when you're in your viewing/listening position and that Atmos speakers are ceiling mounted or at least up high to create the height effect.

Soundbars are usually under the TV, so surely the Atmos speakers are giving away their location because they are below your ear level, so how convincing can they really be when it comes to height?
 
A general question about soundbars that offer Atmos support; the usual line is that surround speakers are roughly in line with your ears when you're in your viewing/listening position and that Atmos speakers are ceiling mounted or at least up high to create the height effect.


A ten-strong driver complement in the soundbar (including a couple of upward-firing ‘elevation’ drivers)

The upward firing speakers would fire the audio ordinarilly portrayed by ceiling or height speakers at your ceiling and it would then be bounced down off that ceiling in order to create the effect of ceiling speakers. You can buy such upward firing speakers for use with conventional Atmos enabled AV receivers and Dolby themselves endorse their use. Is it as effective as using actual ceiling speakers? Probably not, but it means you can get something close to what you'd get with ceiling speakers without actually having to have ceiling speakers. You do need a flat level ceiling though and it isn't as effective if you've a textured finish and or vaulted ceilings.





You'd be hard pushed to locate the upward firing speakers in mosrt setups even if set on top off other speakers at your seated head height.
 
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A general question about soundbars that offer Atmos support; the usual line is that surround speakers are roughly in line with your ears when you're in your viewing/listening position and that Atmos speakers are ceiling mounted or at least up high to create the height effect.

Soundbars are usually under the TV, so surely the Atmos speakers are giving away their location because they are below your ear level, so how convincing can they really be when it comes to height?

I have such speakers in a full-size home theater setup. They're about 1 meter (about 3.2 feet) from the floor, and they work remarkably well. You don't feel like the height effects are coming from your ceiling, but you can feel like they're coming from a good meter above your head.

An Atmos-enabled soundbar works the exact same way, but the speakers are less powerful, not as good, and located even closer to the floor, which gives a less convincing result. But, it's still not bad at all - just don't expect real theater effects and you'll be fine, they're still pretty good especially given the size of a soundbar.
 
A general question about soundbars that offer Atmos support; the usual line is that surround speakers are roughly in line with your ears when you're in your viewing/listening position and that Atmos speakers are ceiling mounted or at least up high to create the height effect.

Soundbars are usually under the TV, so surely the Atmos speakers are giving away their location because they are below your ear level, so how convincing can they really be when it comes to height?
For speakers the size you find in soundbars, your best with a low ceiling for sure.

Do a white noise test and you don’t hear the sound as directly as a proper set up.

However add movie sound and they can be very good. There’s a scene in Deep Water Horizon with “shrapnel” falling onto the roof of an office. It’s very, very good.

The caveat for me though for sound bars, for good Atmos, you must have rear speakers with Atmos too. Minimum 4 upfiring speakers.

There is a slight argument for non Atmos soundtracks, upfiring speakers are “better” cos the sound is less direct and more encompassing. But I guess the point of Atmos is the ability for the sound engineer to direct the sound wherever he wants
 
Bought this soundbar a few days ago. It's connected to a Samsung Q9FN QLED.

Sound is impressive, it's loud and it's clear. A great upgrade from TV speakers. But I just don't feel any sorround coming from the sides or from above.

Not when playing games on my Xbox, nor when playing movies or TV shows from Netflix, HBO or Prime Video.

Soundbar is connected to the TV via HDMI and the content from these platforms show Dolby Atmos or 5.1 sound, but still not a single sorround feeling, it just sounds like it's coming from the TV speakers, although in a much improved manner.

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or maybe I was just expecting something that a soundbar can't really achieve, but after reading all the reviews for this soundbar, I was definitely expecting something else.

I'm going to keep it thou since I do enjoy the sound for games and movies and it's also good for music. I even like it better than my Naim Solo in this regard.
 
I just got this sound bar and has a noob question. The subwoofer has driver on 2 sides... so for best effect, which side should be facing the front? Or are they both suppose to be facing sideways with rear being where the power cable is connected? I have them facing sideways now (which seems the most logical) but sorta feel like the bass is a bit lacking...
 

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