The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S is a setup combining a 3.1.2 bar with two satellite speakers. Thanks to this pairing, you get a more immersive and dimensional sound than what the soundbar can provide on its own, which is great if you watch Dolby Atmos content. It also supports TV passthrough, so you can use the bar as a hub between devices, and plenty of connectivity options are available to get the most out of this bar. There's even a room correction feature called SpaceFit Sound, which allows the bar to change its sound reproduction to fit your room's acoustics, though this feature is only compatible with Samsung TVs.
The Samsung HW-Q700C soundbar with SWA-9500S satellites is good for mixed usage. It offers a customizable performance thanks to its robust sound customization features, which help you tune the bar to your liking. Still, its default sound is well-suited for most kinds of content, and dialogue, in particular, is clear and easy to follow. Its satellites also create a good surround performance, though you may need to raise their volume to truly get a dimensional sound. This bar is equipped with a lot of ports and supports formats like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital, which is great if you're a movie buff.
The Samsung HW-Q700C soundbar with SWA-9500S satellites is great for dialogue and TV shows. Thanks to its discrete center channel, it can reproduce dialogue clearly, so it's easy to follow what's being said on screen. There's also a dialogue enhancement feature to further bring out voices, but it lacks Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) to further enhance speech if you're in a noisy environment. There's some compression at max volume, so your audio may not sound clear if you need to make it louder.
The Samsung HW-Q700C soundbar with SWA-9500S satellites is good for music. This bar has a versatile sound out of the box, adding extra boom to balance out its weaker, thumpy bass. Vocals sound clear and even in mixes, too, and if you prefer a different sound, this bar has many sound customization features, including a graphic EQ available in Standard mode, to help you make the most out of its sound. This bar also supports many common wireless options, making streaming your favorite songs from your phone easy.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with Samsung SWA-9500S satellites is very good for movies. This bar supports a wide array of audio formats, like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital, which are commonly found on Blu-rays and streaming services. While it lacks a bit of a thumpy low-bass, it can still bring some boom to the mix, which is great for action-packed scenes. Dialogue sounds clear, too. Thanks to its satellite speakers, it can also create a dimensional experience, and it feels like sound stretches all around you. Its height performance could be a bit better, but increasing the satellite's volume can help bridge the gap.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S are two separate products that can be added together for a more immersive setup. Both the soundbar (HW-Q700C) and satellites (Samsung SWA-9500S) only come in one color: 'Black.' You can see our soundbar's label here and the label of our satellites here.
If you come across another variant of this soundbar, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S is a mid-range option that blends the utility of a 3.1.2 bar and subwoofer with a set of discrete satellite speakers for a more dimensional audio experience. Its closest competitor is the Samsung HW-Q800C, and although it lacks satellites, so its surround and height performances aren't quite as good, the bar has many of the same features like an EQ and similarly boomy sound. If you're looking for an even better overall performance, you'll want to check out the Samsung HW-Q990D, which outdoes the HW-Q700C in most departments, although it's significantly more expensive.
Check out our recommendations for the best Samsung soundbars, the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, and the best soundbars for dialogue.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S has the edge over the Samsung HW-Q600C/Q60CC. Thanks to its dedicated satellites, the HW-Q700C has better surround and height performances to help immerse you in movies and games. It also supports higher-quality bandwidth signals, which is handy if you're using the bar as a hub between your TV and console.
The Samsung HW-Q800C offers a slightly better overall performance than the Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S. While both setups look fairly similar, the HW-Q800C is better built and has a more balanced sound out of the box. It can get louder, too (although there are similar levels of compression at max volume, so your audio doesn't sound as clean). However, the HW-Q700C offers a better surround sound performance, thanks to its two satellite speakers. This can help add width to the soundstage for a more cinematic feel.
While both the Sonos Arc and Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S are found in the same price bracket, both offer different advantages over the other. The Sonos is an all-in-one soundbar, which is good if you're low on space or don't want the hassle of setting up satellites and subwoofers. On the downside, it lacks an EQ so that you can't finetune the sound, and it only has an eARC port (and an Optical adapter). Conversely, the Samsung soundbar has discrete satellites to help improve its surround and height performances, giving you a more immersive sound. It also has plenty more connection options, and it can passthrough high-quality bandwidth signals, so you can use the bar as a hub between different devices.
The LG S80QR and the Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S are similarly designed setups. The LG is a solid choice for TV shows and other kinds of dialogue-centric content as it has a more neutral sound profile, which some users may prefer, and it can reach its max volume with fewer compression artifacts, so if you're using it to play music during a noisy house party, your audio still sounds clean. The Samsung will be the better choice if you're really into movies and gaming. It has better surround and height performances to make content feel more dimensional and immersive and supports video passthrough.
This bar basically looks like a lot of Samsung products, like the Samsung HW-Q600C/Q60CC. The edges of the bar are angled, and a sleek metal grille covers the top and front of the bar.
The Samsung HW-Q700C has great build quality. It's not quite as premium as the top-of-the-line Samsung HW-Q990D, but it's still quite durable-feeling. The bar and Samsung SWA-9500S satellites are mostly made of plastic with a metal grille to help protect the drivers from damage. In contrast, the subwoofer feels cheaper since it's made of particle board and has a cloth cover, which can collect dust or accidentally rip.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S has a very good stereo frequency response. Even though it struggles to reproduce rumbly low bass that you'd find in genres like EDM and hip-hop or in content like high-stakes action flicks, it packs in punch and boom to make up for it. Its mid-range is still balanced, so dialogue and instruments sound clear in mixes. If you prefer a different sound, you can adjust this setup to your liking using the EQs in the app or with the remote.
If you want a more balanced and neutral sound, you may want to play around with the EQ settings. Lowering the bass to -2 and bumping the treble to 1 results in a more even sound.
This bar's stereo soundstage is good. The soundstage is perceived as a touch wider than the bar itself. It doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider, though. On the upside, it has great focus, so you can easily and accurately track sound objects like footsteps or voices in the soundstage.
This bar has good stereo dynamics and is loud enough to fill a large room with sound. However, if you push the bar to its max volume, there's quite a bit of compression in the bass and treble ranges, which impacts the overall quality and clarity of your audio.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S has a discrete center channel, which helps ensure vocal quality. While the overall response is a bit bassy, the mids are quite even, ensuring the accurate reproduction of dialogue and voices.
This soundbar has a good surround performance, thanks to its two discrete Samsung SWA-9500S satellites. The response is even, so sound seems to stretch around your room for a more cinematic feel. Sound effects like cars racing on a track also sound clear and are accurately placed in the room around you.
The Samsung HW-Q700C has four up-firing drivers: there are two directly on the bar as well as two on the Samsung SWA-9500S satellites, which bounce sound off of your ceiling and back at you to give you the impression of height. The frequency response is also balanced, ensuring sound effects sound clear.
Additionally, we subjectively evaluated this bar's Atmos performance. Overall, this setup creates dimensionality in your audio, but it doesn't sound quite as immersive as that from the Samsung HW-Q990D. The surround speakers are quite subdued, so you'll want to boost them by one or two notches to help get a better response. Otherwise, some sound effects, like the sound of drones passing overhead, fall short of giving you a sense of range.
This bar has a lot of sound customization features. You can utilize a graphic EQ, presets, or bass and treble adjustments for sound customization. The graphic EQ is only accessible when using Standard mode when also using Advanced mode; otherwise, you'll only have two-level band control in Basic mode. There's also Adaptive mode, which automatically adjusts the bar's sound based on your content.
This bar also supports features only Samsung users can use. Its SpaceFit Sound feature allows the bar to adapt its sound reproduction to fit your room's acoustics by using your Samsung TV's mic to calibrate the bar. There's also Q-Symphony, which allows you to use your compatible Samsung TV speakers in addition to the soundbar for a larger soundstage and more immersive sound.
You can connect this bar to your TV via Optical or HDMI. There's also a Full HDMI In port, so you can use the bar as a hub between different devices. While there's a USB port, it is only for servicing the bar.
This bar supports all common audio formats via eARC. You can play surround formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object formats like Dolby Atmos.
This soundbar supports a wide array of formats over HDMI In as well. These include Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos, which you'll find on Blu-rays and streaming services.
The Samsung SWA-9500S supports Dolby Digital and DTS via Optical, too, which is great if you watch a lot of content from streaming services or Blu-rays. DTS is also commonly used as a fallback for higher-quality formats on Blu-ray.
Audio latency via ARC is outstanding. Regardless of the format, your audio and visuals are synched well. That said, some apps and TVs compensate for latency, and if you find the delay unmanageable, you'll want to check out the AudioSync feature available in the companion app. It allows you to manually compensate for the delay.
The audio latency performance over HDMI In is fantastic. Your audio and visuals are in sync, so you won't have lip-sync lag. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency, though.
The latency performance over Optical is great, but the AV synchronization error is higher when using the Dolby Digital format. That said, it's not the end of the world, as you can manually correct this by using the Audio Sync feature in the companion app.
This soundbar can passthrough the highest bandwidth signals. When connected between your PC and your TV, text on the screen appears clear and crisp.
This bar also supports all common wireless playback options, making streaming audio from your smartphone to your soundbar easy.
The Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S has a remote to control all the settings. You can also use the SmartThings companion app to control the soundbar from your phone.
This soundbar has built-in Amazon Alexa support, making it easy to control the bar hands-free. Although some regional models support Google Assistant, this feature isn't available in the US. Luckily, if you don't want your voice assistant to listen to you, you can use the microphone mute button on the top of the bar.