Samsung HW-Q900A  Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q900A soundbar has a similar design to the Samsung HW-Q950A. The bar is fairly wide and heavy. It's mostly plastic, with fabric tightly draped across the top. The sides of the bar are also slightly angled with vent-like openings for the side surround speakers.

The sub is mostly made of wood. On the side, the speaker's opening is covered by fabric.

The Samsung HW-Q900A doesn't come with satellite speakers, but it's compatible with the Wireless Rear Speaker Kit, sold separately.

The Samsung HW-Q900A is fairly wide, so it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. However, it also isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen unless your TV sits flush on the table.

The sub is the same size as the sub for the Samsung HW-Q900T. It's about the size of a desktop PC, and thanks to its wireless design, you can position it anywhere in your setup as long as it's plugged into a power outlet.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a good build quality. It's identical to the Samsung HW-Q950A, though it doesn't come with satellite speakers. The bar itself is mostly plastic, which feels solid and durable, and the sub is mostly wood. However, the fabric covering seems like it could collect dust and get dirty easily, which may be disappointing for some users. For a better-built soundbar, check out the LG SP11RA.

• User Manual
• Mounting template
• 2x mounting brackets
• 2x mounting screws
• 2x mounting collars
• Rubber feet pad
• Remote with batteries (2xAA)
• 2x power cord (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a great stereo frequency response. With its Standard preset, it has a pretty neutral sound profile suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. However, the low-bass is a bit underemphasized, so you may not feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music or action-packed movies. Fortunately, there's a graphic EQ and bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound.

Note: This soundbar comes with a room correction feature called Auto EQ that automatically calibrates audio reproduction using a microphone built into the subwoofer. In our testing, we turn on any room correction feature during our stereo frequency response tests to better represent the typical user experience. However, after multiple attempts using both the remote and the app, we couldn't get the Auto EQ feature to work. Each time, we received an error message saying that the tuning had failed.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has an excellent stereo frequency response with preliminary calibration. With its subwoofer level set to '+3', this soundbar offers a very neutral and balanced sound profile. It's suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content, and it can accurately reproduce the thump and punch in the bass range.

Note: We usually calibrate soundbars using bass and treble adjustments if they're available. However, during our testing, we noticed that adjusting the bass and treble for this bar doesn't change the frequency response. We've experienced the same issue with some other Samsung soundbars released in 2021. We're looking into this issue, and we'll update this review once we have more information.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a good stereo soundstage performance. The soundstage is perceived to be about the size of the bar itself. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. On the upside, it has good focus, so it's easy to follow sound objects like footsteps and pinpoint them to an accurate location.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has an excellent stereo dynamics performance. It gets loud, which is helpful if you like to crank up the volume to fill a large room or a crowded party. Also, there isn't a lot of compression when you push the bar to its max volume.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a great THD performance. At normal listening volumes, it falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction. While there's a slight jump in THD at max volume, it shouldn't be very noticeable for most listeners with real-life content.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has an amazing center channel performance. This 7.1.2 setup comes with a discrete center that helps more accurately localize dialogue to a pinpoint location in the sound image. Its frequency response is also neutral, especially in the mid-range where voices are reproduced, so dialogue is clear and detailed.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has an acceptable surround performance. It uses side-firing speakers built into the bar to bounce sound off the walls. Unfortunately, objects in the soundstage don't sound as clear and accurate as they would in a setup with discrete surround speakers. That said, its frequency response is quite balanced, so dialogue reproduces accurately, and you can feel the thump and rumble in action-packed scenes. For a better surrounds performance, check out the Nakamichi Shockwafe Pro 7.1 SSE.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a middling Atmos performance. It uses up-firing speakers on the bar to bounce sound off the ceiling and back down towards you to simulate height. However, it's not as immersive-sounding as setups with additional up-firing rear speakers like the Samsung HW-Q930B.

Update 03/15/2022: If you choose to add on rear speakers to this setup, you get access to a Rear Level Adjustment feature in the app and with the remote. However, without rear speakers, you can't use this feature.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a fantastic selection of sound enhancement features. Like most premium bars, it has a room correction feature that uses a microphone built into the subwoofer to calibrate audio reproduction; however, we couldn't get this feature to work during our testing. If you want to customize its sound, there's a graphic EQ available as well as some presets: 'Standard', 'Surround', 'Game', and 'Adaptive Sound'. You can even make voices sound more clear and crisp using the Active Voice Amplifier or the Voice Enhancement feature on the app.

The Samsung HW-Q900A comes with some sound enhancement features that we don't currently test. Its Q-Symphony feature allows you to pair the bar with the speakers on compatible Samsung TVs to create a more immersive sound. You can also use compatible Samsung TVs to activate the SpaceFit Sound+ feature, which calibrates audio reproduction based on the room you're listening in. You can also mirror audio from your phone to the soundbar using the Tap Sound feature.

The Samsung HW-Q900A comes with several physical inputs. It has two Full HDMI In ports that let you use it as a hub between different devices. However, it lacks an AUX port, and you can't plug in USB drives for audio playback.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has fantastic audio format support via ARC. It supports more common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital and object-based and lossless formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The Samsung HW-Q900A also supports all of the audio formats that we test for via Full HDMI In. It supports Dolby Digital, which is the most common surround sound format often found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms. It also supports object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The Samsung HW-Q900A supports both Dolby Digital and DTS via Optical, commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a great latency performance. It has fairly low latency via its ARC and Optical In ports, so you shouldn't notice a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. As a result, it's suitable for watching videos over these connections. It doesn't perform as well via its Full HDMI In port, though. That said, some apps and some TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may differ.

Update 02/09/2022: We confirmed that updating the firmware to version 1010.1 didn't add Chromecast capabilities to the bar. Some users have reported otherwise, but we believe that it could be their TV allowing for Chromecast. It's also possible that Australian soundbar units have Chromecast support as advertised on the manufacturer's Australian website. However, Samsung's websites in other countries don't mention any Chromecast capabilities.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has incredible wireless playback support. You can wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Unlike the Samsung HW-Q900T, it also supports Apple AirPlay 2, handy for Apple users.

The Samsung HW-Q900A can passthrough the highest quality bandwidth signals, including Dolby Vision Passthrough. When connected between your PC and your TV, text on the screen appears clear and crisp. However, it can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a small display on the top of the bar that shows the volume level, the speaker settings, and the input. There are also three lights in the front of the bar that change depending on the setting you adjust. You can also press and hold the SOURCE button for five seconds to turn the Voice Feedback feature on and off, which lets you know when you've adjusted a sound mode.

The physical controls on the top of the bar let you adjust the volume and turn the microphone on and off. There's also a multi-function button that lets you change the input.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has a simple remote that lets you control some features, like the volume and the sound modes. You can also download the Samsung SmartThings app to your phone if you'd rather control the bar that way.

The Samsung HW-Q900A has built-in support for Amazon Alexa voice assistant, and you can also mute the mic if you don't want it to hear you.