Samsung HW-Q60B Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q60B is made of similar materials compared to the Samsung HW-Q60T. It's made of good-quality plastic and a solid metal grille. However, unlike the Q60T, the sides are angled.

The Samsung HW-Q60B's sub is made of wood, with fabric covering the front. The pairing button and the port are on the back.

You can add on either the Samsung SWA-9200S or the SWA-9100S rear speaker kits if you want.

The Samsung HW-Q60B is a bit longer than the Samsung HW-Q60T due to the angled edges. It doesn't fit between the legs of a 55-inch TV, but it isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen.

The Samsung HW-Q60B's sub is about the size of an average desktop computer. Since it connects to the bar wirelessly, you can place it anywhere in your room. You just need to plug it into a power outlet to get it to work.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has good build quality. It's similar to the Samsung HW-Q60T, with a bar that's mostly made of plastic and a metal grille to protect the drivers inside. The sub's made of wood, which feels solid. However, the fabric in the front seems thin, and it collects dust easily.

• Manuals
• Power adapter for the soundbar (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Mounting template with plates and screws

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a good stereo frequency response. It has a fairly neutral sound out-of-the-box, with balanced mids that reproduce clear and accurate voices and lead instruments. There's a little extra boom in the high-bass which adds some rumble to the sound. It can't reproduce the deep thump in the low-bass common with bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. The next-generation Samsung HW-Q60C/Q6CC does a little better in this regard but still pales compared to more premium models. Fortunately, many customization tools are on hand, like a graphic EQ and presets, but you can't make it reproduce lower frequencies.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a good stereo frequency response with calibration. If you set its bass to '-3' and its treble to '1', it has a more neutral and balanced sound profile, making it suitable for listening to a lot of different types of audio content. Balanced mids ensure voices and lead instruments are clear and detailed in the mix, and while the high-bass is present, it isn't as thumpy. You still won't get the deep rumble in the low-bass, so it's not ideal for bass-heavy music or action-packed movies.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a fair stereo soundstage. The bar's soundstage isn't perceived to be any wider than the bar itself, and it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. There's good focus, though, so sound objects like voices and instruments seem to come from accurate, pinpoint locations in the soundstage.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a good stereo dynamics performance. The bar gets loud enough to fill large rooms and open spaces, and there's not too much compression when you push it to max volume. As a result, audio reproduction is clean and pure even at high volumes.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a fair stereo THD performance. At normal listening volumes, distortion falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. There's a jump in THD across the range when you push the bar to max volume, though. That said, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content - audiophiles notice some unwanted frequencies at loud volume, but more casual listeners don't hear much of a difference.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a good center channel performance. It's a 3.1 setup, meaning that it comes with a discrete center channel. As a result, voices are more clear and accurate in the mix, and they're more accurately localized within the soundstage.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a poor surrounds performance, which is common for 3.1 setups. It doesn't come with discrete surround speakers, so it has to downmix 5.1 content into stereo to play it. The resulting sound isn't as immersive, and it just seems like audio is coming from speakers placed in front of you. You don't get the sense that action is taking place all around you with 5.1 movies and video games.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a poor Atmos performance. Though it's advertised to come with up-firing channels, these aren't designed for height content - they seem to be part of the Acoustic Beam technology, and they don't play sound with height content specifically. The bar has to downmix Atmos content into stereo to play it. The resulting sound isn't as immersive, as it simply plays the file through the bar's left and right stereo speakers. Sounds seem localized to the front of the bar, and while it can achieve some height, you don't get the sense that action is happening all around you. For example, it doesn't seem like sound effects come from the sides or from behind you. That said, this is a pretty typical performance for a 3.1 bar.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a decent selection of sound enhancement features, especially compared to similar 3.1 models like the Sony HT-S2000. You can customize its sound with its bass and treble adjustments as well as its 7-band graphic EQ. There are several preset modes, including 'Standard', 'Surround Sound', 'Game', 'Adaptive Sound', and 'DTS VIRTUAL:X'. 'Adaptive Sound' is a dialogue enhancement feature, and 'DTS VIRTUAL:X' is a virtual surround mode that creates a more 3D sound. Also, if you add on rear speakers, you can adjust their levels.

You can pair the bar with compatible Samsung TVs to use Q-Symphony. This feature is advertised to create a more immersive sound by using your TV speakers in tandem with the speakers in the bar itself. However, in practice, Q-Symphony results in a noticeable difference in volume between the speakers on the bar and the speakers in the TV, which is quite distracting. You don't need Q-Symphony to get an immersive sound; if anything, it degrades the overall audio quality.

You can wire the Samsung HW-Q60B to your TV using HDMI or Optical connections. There's also a Full HDMI In port, meaning you can use the bar as a hub between different devices like your PC and your TV.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has incredible audio format support via ARC. If you watch a lot of content on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs, you're likely to come across formats like Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. The bar supports all of them.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has fantastic audio format support via Full HDMI In. It can playback common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The Samsung HW-Q60B supports both Dolby Digital and DTS over Optical. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format - and while DTS isn't used as much, it's the fallback for higher-quality DTS-HD MA, which you find on a lot of Blu-rays.

The Samsung HW-Q60B has a good latency performance. It has fairly low latency, so you don't notice a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary.

The Samsung HW-Q60B can passthrough some high-quality bandwidth signals, so when you connect it between your TV and your PC, text on the screen is clear and crisp. It can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz, though, so you can only watch 4k content at a max refresh rate of 60Hz, which doesn't appear as natural-looking.

You can wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth, and you can actually connect up to two devices at once. If you have certain Samsung mobile devices, you can use Samsung's Tap Sound feature, which mirrors sound from the device to the bar when you tap them against each other. If you don't have this feature, Bluetooth is still available.

There's a small display located beneath the metal grille. It displays the settings as you change them, including the input and the volume level. The metal grille makes the text appear a bit blurry, but you can still read what it says.

There are four controls on top of the bar, which let you power it on/off, adjust the volume, and change the input. You can also use the included remote to control the bar from the comfort of your couch.

The remote has the same design as the remote for other 2022 Samsung soundbars. It lets you control all of the bar's functions, so you can play/pause your audio, change the input, select the sound mode, and more.