Samsung HW-B650 Soundbar Review

This soundbar 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 this soundbar doesn't come with satellites, you can add a Wireless Rear Speaker Kit separately.

This soundbar is fairly wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of most 55" TV stands. 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.

You can mount the bar to the wall if you want. The brackets and screws are included with your purchase, which is a nice touch.

This setup has 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 could rip easily, too, so it's worth handling with care.

• 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)

This soundbar has a very good stereo frequency response. Its sound is similar to last year's Samsung HW-A650, with a pretty clear and accurate reproduction of lead instruments in the mix. There's a little extra brightness compared to last year's model, but it's still a suitable choice for most music genres. That said, there's still a lack of low-bass, which is especially noticeable with bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. Customization tools like a graphic EQ are on hand to switch up its performance if you like, though these won't have much of an impact on the low-bass extension since it isn't designed to adjust at these lower frequencies.

A response that follows our Harman-based target curve is pleasing to most kinds of listeners. We recommend using this bar with its default settings if you want this sound.

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 localize to accurate locations in the soundstage around you. For example, in songs like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, you notice that some voices come from the right speaker, and others come from the left speaker as intended by those who mixed the track.

This bar 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 noticeably impact your audio quality. As a result, you get a clean and clear sound, even at loud volumes.

The Samsung HW-B650/ZA has a fair stereo dynamics performance. Distortion falls within good limits at a normal listening volume, 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 HW-B650 soundbar has a great center channel performance. It's a 3.1 bar with a discrete center channel designed to improve dialogue clarity. The frequency response is quite balanced, too, especially in the mids, where most voices reproduce, so you can easily follow along with the conversation.

This soundbar 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 rather than from speakers placed around you. You can always add a separate rear speaker kit from the manufacturer for a more immersive sound.

For a bar that supports height content, check out the Samsung HW-Q600B or the Samsung HW-Q60C.

The Samsung HW-B650 has a decent selection of sound enhancement features, especially compared to similarly-priced models. Like most mid-range bars, it lacks room correction, so it sounds slightly different depending on your room's acoustics. However, with its bass and treble adjustments and graphic EQ, you have many options to customize its sound. There are many preset modes, 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 to create a more immersive sound. If you add on rears, you can adjust their levels, too.

You can plug this soundbar 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 since one doesn't come in the box.

The Samsung B650 supports Dolby Digital and DTS content over ARC. Both are common 5.1 surround sound formats, often seen 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.

This bar 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 soundbar also supports Dolby Digital and DTS formats over Optical, which you find on many Blu-rays and streaming platforms.

The Samsung B650 soundbar has a bit of latency over ARC and Optical connections. However, we noticed no lip-synching issues over these connections during our testing, even with dialogue-centric content. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, though.

This soundbar can passthrough some common resolutions and refresh rates. If you connect it as a hub between your gaming console and your TV, you can enjoy 1080p and 4k content. However, it can't passthrough higher-quality video signals like HDR10, which is disappointing if you want to use it with a Blu-ray player or an Apple TV. It can't passthrough any of the more common variable refresh rate technologies, which is disappointing if you're a gamer searching for a more tear-free experience.

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

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 you're playing.

On top of the bar, you'll 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. It doesn't support a companion app, so this is the main tool for controlling the bar's features.