Samsung HW-Q59CT Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q59CT is a simple soundbar with a similar design to the Samsung HW-Q60T. It's plastic, with a metal grille covering the top and front.

The sub is mostly made of melamine. There's fabric covering the front.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT soundbar is a bit wide, so it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV. That said, it isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen unless your TV sits flush on the table.

The sub is about the size of an average desktop PC. It connects to the bar wirelessly, so you have some flexibility when placing it in your setup.

The back of the bar has two openings for the power cable and the input ports. There are also proprietary holes so you can mount it to the wall using the included brackets.

There's a port on the back of the subwoofer. Also, the power cable connects near the bottom, and there's a pairing button.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a good build quality. The bar is high-quality plastic, and the metal grille covering the front and the top helps protect the drivers inside. Unfortunately, the sub feels a bit cheap. It's mostly made of melamine, and the wood behind the fabric for our model flexes. The fabric covering is also loose, so it seems like it could rip easily.

• User manual
• Mounting brackets
• Remote with 2xAA batteries
• HDMI cable
• 2x Power cables
• Mounting screws with template
• AC adapter

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a very good stereo frequency response. On its 'Standard' preset, it has a pretty neutral sound profile with a little extra punch in the bass range that should be suitable for most types of audio content. That said, it struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble in the low-bass. However, you can customize its sound to your liking using its graphic EQ and presets.

This soundbar also comes with 'Surround Sound' and 'Game Mode Pro' presets that use Acoustic Beam technology to simulate a 5.1 setup. However, during our subjective listening tests, we found that the 'Standard' preset was better-suited to stereo content, like music. The 'Surround Sound' and 'Game Mode Pro' preset modes tried to push sound higher than the 'Standard' preset, resulting in a more fake and diffused sound with stereo content.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a very good stereo frequency response with calibration. With its bass set to '-5' and its treble set to '5', it has a more neutral, balanced sound profile suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. Unfortunately, it still doesn't reproduce a very extended low-bass, so you don't feel the low rumble in bass-heavy music or action-packed movies.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a decent stereo soundstage. Its soundstage is perceived to be wider than the bar itself, which is good. It also has good focus, so sound objects seem to come from an accurate, pinpoint location rather than a more general area.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a very good stereo dynamics performance. It gets loud enough to fill up a large room or a crowded party. While there are some compression artifacts present at max volume, they shouldn't be too noticeable, so audio is still reproduced clearly.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a fair THD performance. At normal listening volumes, the THD falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. However, there's a jump in THD when you push the bar to max volume, especially in the bass range. That said, it may not be too noticeable with real-life content.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT has a good center channel performance. Thanks to its 5.1 setup, it has a discrete center channel, which helps to more accurately localize voices to a pinpoint location in the sound image. While its frequency response is a bit bass-heavy, this shouldn't be too noticeable since most voices are reproduced in the mid-range.

The manufacturer advertises the Samsung HW-Q59CT as a 5.1 setup, but during our tests, we found that it has a 3.1 setup with its 'Standard' preset. As a result, it has to downmix surround content into stereo to play it, which doesn't sound as immersive. Audio seems like it's coming from in front of you rather than from speakers placed all around you. The results above reflect our tests with the 'Standard' preset enabled.

However, with its 'Surround Sound' and 'Game Mode Pro' presets, this soundbar uses Acoustic Beam technology to simulate a 5.1 setup. During our subjective listening tests, we found that the 'Surround Sound' preset is better-suited to surround content. It fires sound upward and forward from the bar using a phantom localization, resulting in a more immersive sound. You can see the results for the 'Surround Sound' preset here.

For a bar with support for height content, check out the Samsung HW-Q600B.

The Samsung HW-Q59CT soundbar has a fair selection of sound enhancement features. You can customize its sound using the bass and treble adjustments as well as its 7-band graphic EQ. It also comes with several EQ presets, including 'Standard', Surround Sound', 'Game Mode Pro', and 'DTS Virtual:X'. Unfortunately, it lacks some more premium sound enhancement features like room correction, so it may sound a bit different depending on the room you're listening in.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar has several physical inputs. There's a Full HDMI In port, meaning you can use it as a hub between different devices. However, it doesn't have an AUX port, so you can't wire older devices for audio playback.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar has decent audio format support via ARC. It supports Dolby Digital, which is the most commonly used surround sound format. Also, it supports DTS, which is the fallback for the higher quality DTS-HD MA format.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar also supports Dolby Digital over its Full HDMI In port, which is handy for listeners who watch a lot of content on Blu-ray discs and streaming services. However, you can't stream object-based or lossless audio formats like Dolby Atmos.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar also supports Dolby Digital and DTS via Optical in. These formats are commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar has a fair latency performance. It has somewhat high latency via ARC, Optical, and Full HDMI In, so you may notice a bit of delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. As a result, it may not be ideal for watching video over these connections. That said, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar only lets you stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar wirelessly via Bluetooth.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar can passthrough high bandwidth signals. When connected between your PC and your TV, text on the screen appears crisp and clear.

The sub connects to the bar wirelessly. You only need to plug it into a power outlet to use it.

There's a small display screen on the right side of the bar behind the metal grille. It shows the settings you change, as well as the input you're on and the volume level.

There are some physical controls on top of the bar. You can turn the bar on and off, adjust the volume, and change the input.

The remote is fairly simple and lets you control all of the bar's functions. The manufacturer also says that it supports Samsung OneRemote, so you can control the bar using the remote for a compatible Samsung TV.

The Samsung Q59CT soundbar has an auto-off feature that shuts it off after 20 minutes of inactivity. It also supports HDMI CEC, meaning you can control the bar's basic functions with your TV remote.