Samsung HW-Q60C/Q6CC Soundbar Review

The Samsung Q60C soundbar has a similar appearance to its predecessor, the Samsung HW-Q60B. Metal grilles cover most of the bar, while the back and bottom are plastic. The angled end caps are made of plastic, too.

The sub resembles the model that comes with the Samsung HW-Q60B. It's mostly made of vinyl-wrapped wood with a plastic back. The front is covered in fabric. You find the port and the pairing button on the back, too.

You can add on satellites sold separately by the manufacturer if you want.

The Samsung Q60C is a little too wide to fit between the legs of most 55" TV stands. Since it isn't very tall, though, it won't obscure your TV screen.

The sub's size is roughly equivalent to an average desktop computer. It connects to the bar wirelessly, so you have lots of flexibility when placing it in your living room.

You can mount the bar to your wall with the included brackets. The wall screws aren't included, so you'll have to pick those up separately.

The Samsung Q60C soundbar has great build quality. The bar itself feels solid and sturdy, with metal grilles to help protect the drivers inside. The plastic feels of good quality, too. The sub also seems pretty solid, though the fabric wrapping in front is quite thin. It doesn't seem to offer much protection to the driver inside. Plus, it could gather dust and hair over time.

• 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)
• 2x bracket wall mounts
• Mounting template with bracket screws and screw holders

This bar has a great stereo frequency response. Given its price, it offers good sound, with a pretty clear and accurate reproduction of vocals and lead instruments in the mix. It's slightly boomy due to the touch of extra bass, though the bass attack seems slow, which softens the sound a bit. Still, it's suitable for listening to many different audio content types. There are even some customization tools on hand to switch up its sound.

If you prefer a more neutral sound with stereo content, set the bass to -2 and the treble to 1. The resulting sound aligns more with our Harman-based target curve, which most people find pleasing to listen to. The bass is a touch less boomy, too.

The bar's soundstage is okay with stereo content. It's not perceived to be any wider than the bar itself, as the bar doesn't have any tricks to make it seem larger than that. Still, focus is good, so sound effects like voices and instruments seem to come from accurate positions in the soundstage.

This bar gets loud enough to fill most living rooms with sound. Compression falls within good limits and isn't too noticeable with most tracks. Still, compared to more premium bars, it seems that there's a bit of compression in more cinematic tracks like Heart of Courage by Two Steps From Hell, especially in the bass range.

Distortion falls within good limits when you listen at an average volume. As with most bars, there's a jump in distortion when you push the bar to max volume. Still, it's not easy to hear with real-life content, especially if you're a more casual listener.

This 3.1 soundbar comes with a discrete center channel that's designed to improve vocal reproduction in the mix. This channel's frequency response follows our Harman-based target curve quite well, meaning that dialogue reproduces with accuracy and clarity. As a result, it's easy to follow along with conversations taking place on screen.

As it's a 3.1 setup, 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital are downmixed into stereo to play them back. The resulting sound isn't quite as immersive as with more premium setups with discrete surround speakers, though you can always purchase these separately if you want an improved sound. The frequency response on these channels is fairly even, albeit with a touch of extra boom in the bass, which muddies sound effects just a touch.

The Samsung HW-Q60C downmixes height content like Dolby Atmos into stereo to play it back. Of course, you don't get the same clear and real feel as with setups with dedicated up-firing height drivers. Still, the frequency response is fairly even, so sound effects remain pretty clear in the mix.

Subjectively, we found that the bar's height performance improved over traditional TV speakers, but not much more. It does little to replicate the sense of sound from the space above you or surrounding you, which makes sense given that it lacks surround or height drivers. The soundstage isn't very wide, even compared to other bars of its size. Sound effects are concentrated in the space in front of you, so it just seems like audio is playing from a speaker rather than coming from all around you for a truly immersive feel. You can check out the Samsung HW-Q600C/Q60CC if you want a bar that doesn't downmix Atmos content.

With a decent selection of sound enhancement features, it's easy to customize the sound of the Samsung HW-Q6CC. It lacks room correction, which is typical of bars in this price range, but you can make up for the acoustic differences in your space with bass and treble adjustments as well as a 7-band graphic EQ. There are a few preset modes, too, like Standard, Surround Sound, Game, Adaptive Sound, and DTS VIRTUAL:X. The Adaptive Sound feature doubles as a dialogue enhancement mode, too. If you choose to add on rear speakers, you also get access to a rear adjustment tool.

You can connect the bar to your TV using Optical or HDMI connections. The Full HDMI In port allows you to set up video passthrough between your TV and another device like a gaming console.

Most common audio formats are supported by this soundbar via ARC. For example, you can take advantage of 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. Since it's a 3.1 bar, it has to downmix them into stereo to play them back.

Similarly, you can playback many common audio formats via Full HDMI In as stereo content. You'll likely come across Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos content on both streaming platforms and Blu-rays.

The bar also supports Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical. However, we experienced some issues with playing DTS-formatted audio on various sources. While it works well with some files, it doesn't work with others, resulting in no sound coming from the bar. This issue only arose over an Optical connection. Please let us know in the forums if you experience anything similar with your soundbar.

The Samsung Q60C soundbar's latency is decent. It's fairly low, so the audio you hear is largely in sync with the video you see on the screen. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, though.

The Samsung Q60C soundbar can passthrough many common resolutions and refresh rates. You can enjoy HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision content from devices like an Apple TV 4k or a PC. Gamers can also take advantage of a tear-free gaming experience through variable refresh rate technologies like HDR Forum VRR. The bar doesn't support HDMI 2.1 technology, so it can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz @ 10-bit.

You can wirelessly stream audio to the bar from your mobile devices via Bluetooth.

A simple display on the front of the bar shows various settings as you adjust them. It's only three characters but scrolls to show the entire message.

A few buttons on top of the bar give you access to simple controls. For example, you can power the bar on/off, adjust the volume, and change the input.

The remote is a simple way to access the bar's features. Without a companion app, it's the only way to access features like the graphic EQ and the bass and treble adjustments.