Samsung HW-B650 Soundbar Review

The Samsung B650 has a similar design to the Samsung HW-B550. It's mostly made of plastic, with a metal grille covering the front and the sides. The edges of the bar have an angled design, which makes it stand out from last year's model, the Samsung HW-A650.

The sub is mostly made of wood. There's fabric covering the front, and the port is located on the back.

While the Samsung B650 doesn't come with satellites, you can add a Wireless Rear Speaker Kit separately.

The Samsung B650 is fairly wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. Still, it isn't very tall, so it doesn't obscure your TV screen.

The sub is about the size of an average desktop computer. Since it connects to the bar wirelessly, you have more flexibility when you place it in your living room.

The Samsung B650 has a great build quality. The bar's mostly made of plastic, which feels solid and durable, and the metal grilles help protect the drivers inside. The sub's mostly made of wood. Unfortunately, the fabric in front is loose and thin, and it easily collects dust. It seems like it could rip easily, too.

• User Manual
• Remote with batteries (2x AA)
• Mounting brackets screws and template
• Adapter for bar (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Optical cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung B650 has a very good stereo frequency response. Its sound is similar to last year's Samsung HW-A650, with a neutral sound, especially in the mids, where most voices and lead instruments reproduce. As a result, it's suitable for listening to most types of audio content, and you also notice a little extra brightness compared to last year's model. There's still a lack of low-bass, which is especially noticeable with bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop, as you don't feel the deep rumble in the bass range.

If you prefer a neutral sound, we recommend using the Samsung B650 with its default settings. However, there are many customization options on hand if you want a different sound, which is nice.

The Samsung B650 has a decent stereo soundstage. The soundstage is perceived to be about as wide as the bar itself, but it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. The focus is good, though, so sound effects are localized to accurate locations in the soundstage around you. For example, instruments in an orchestra are localized to accurate locations in the space around you.

The Samsung B650 has very good stereo dynamics. It gets loud enough to fill your living room with sound. There's a little bit of compression when you push it to max volume, especially in the bass range, but it doesn't have a noticeable impact on your audio quality.

The Samsung B650 has a fair stereo dynamics performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. There's a jump in distortion when you push it to max volume, though. However, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content, especially if you're a more casual listener.

The Samsung B650 has a great center channel performance. It's a 3.1 bar with a discrete center channel, which reproduces dialogue with greater clarity and accuracy, so voices are localized to pinpoint locations in the soundstage. The frequency response is quite balanced, too, especially in the mids where most voices reproduce. You don't have any issues hearing dialogue in your audio.

The Samsung B650 has a poor surrounds performance; however, this is normal for a 3.1 bar. Since it doesn't have discrete surrounds, it has to downmix 5.1 content like Dolby Digital into stereo to play it. As a result, audio seems like it's just coming from a speaker placed in front of you. For a more immersive sound, you can always add a separate rear speaker kit from the manufacturer.

For a bar that supports height content, check out the Samsung HW-Q600B.

The Samsung B650 has a decent selection of sound enhancement features. You don't get room correction like with more premium models, so it sounds a little different depending on your room's acoustics. However, with its bass and treble adjustments and graphic EQ, you've got lots of options to customize its sound. There are many preset modes, too, including 'Standard', 'Surround Sound', 'Bass Boost', 'Game', 'Adaptive Sound Lite', and 'DTS Virtual X'. The 'Adaptive Sound Lite' mode can enhance audio like dialogue by making voices sound more clear and crisp, while 'DTS Virtual X' works as a virtual surround feature. If you add on rears, you can adjust their levels, too.

You can plug the Samsung B650 into your TV using an HDMI or Optical connection. It comes with an Optical cable, but you need to get an HDMI cable separately if you want to use this connection.

The Samsung B650 supports Dolby Digital and DTS content over ARC. Both are common 5.1 surround sound formats, which you often see on streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, since it's a 3.1 bar, it has to downmix this content into stereo to play it.

The Samsung B650 also supports DTS and Dolby Digital via HDMI In. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format, which you see on lots of different streaming platforms. DTS is often a fallback for higher-quality DTS-HD MA formats seen on lots of Blu-rays.

The Samsung B650 also supports Dolby Digital and DTS formats over Optical, which you find on many Blu-rays and streaming platforms.

The Samsung B650 has fairly low latency, though some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary. During our testing process, we didn't notice a delay between the audio we heard and the video on the screen, even with lip-synching.

The Samsung B650 lets you wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth.

Though the Samsung B650 has a Full HDMI In port, it doesn't support high-quality passthrough for users who want to use the bar as a hub between their PC and their TV, for example.

There's a small four-character display on the front of the bar. It shows the volume level and the current input as you adjust the bar's settings. It scrolls through longer words, too. You can also press the 'i' button on the remote to see the format being played.

On top of the bar, you find buttons that let you power the bar on/off, adjust the volume, and change the input.

The remote is simple and lets you access all the bar's features. For example, you can change the sound mode or use the settings button to access night mode and dialogue enhancement tools.