Samsung HW-Q950A  Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a similar design to the Samsung HW-Q950T. It's fairly wide and heavy, with slightly angled vent-like openings for its side surround speakers. The bar itself is mostly plastic, and the front and top are tightly draped with fabric. However, the fabric seems like it could collect dust easily.

The Samsung HW-Q950A's sub is mostly wood. There's an opening on the right side that's covered by fabric, though this seems like it could rip or get dirty easily.

The Samsung HW-Q950A's satellites are mostly plastic. There's tight fabric covering the top and front sides, which seems like it could collect dust. Also, the power cable connection is in the back, and there's a groove you can use to tuck the cable away neatly.

The Samsung HW-Q950A is fairly wide and likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. That said, it also isn't very tall, so it shouldn't obscure your view of the TV screen unless your TV sits flush on the table.

The Samsung HW-Q950A's sub is about the size of a large desktop PC. It connects to the bar wirelessly, so you just need to plug it into an outlet to get it to work.

The Samsung HW-Q950A's satellite speakers are fairly long and tall. That said, they can be placed anywhere in your room as long as they're connected to a power outlet.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a good build quality. The bar itself and the satellites are made mostly of plastic, which feels quite solid. The subwoofer is mostly wood. However, the fabric coverings seem like they could rip or get dirty easily, which is a bit disappointing. For a better-built bar, check out the Samsung HW-Q930B.

• User Manual
• Remote with batteries (2xAA)
• Mounting template with bar brackets (x2) and screws (x2) and collars (x2)
• 4x power cord (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a great stereo frequency response. This soundbar comes with a room correction feature called Auto EQ that uses a microphone built into the subwoofer to calibrate the audio reproduction based on the unique acoustic characteristics of your room. With this feature on, it offers a pretty neutral, balanced sound profile. Voices and lead instruments are clear and present thanks to its balanced mids, making it suitable for most types of audio content. It lacks a bit of low-bass out-of-the-box, especially compared to next year's model, the Samsung HW-Q990B. That said, there's a graphic EQ on hand to help you customize its sound, so fans of bass-heavy genres can add more rumble if they wish.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has an impressive stereo frequency response with preliminary calibration. With the subwoofer level set to '+2', this soundbar has a very neutral and balanced sound profile. It reproduces more low-bass, helping you feel the deep thump and rumble in action-packed movies and bass-heavy music genres.

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 the Samsung HW-Q950A doesn't change the frequency response. We've experienced the same issue with other Samsung soundbars released in 2021. Unfortunately, this issue hasn't been fixed in any firmware updates.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a good stereo soundstage performance. It has good focus, meaning that sound effects seem to come from accurate, pinpoint locations in the soundstage. On its 'Standard' preset, the soundstage seems a bit wider than the bar itself. Its 'Adaptive Sound' preset widens the soundstage further, but unfortunately, it makes stereo content sound diffused and filtered. We recommend listening to stereo content on the 'Standard' preset, but your subjective impressions may vary. You can also check out the Sony HT-A9 or the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 with Speakers + Bass Module if you want a bar with a better stereo soundstage.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has an excellent stereo dynamics performance. It can get quite loud, so your audio can easily fill up a large room or a crowded party. Also, there isn't a lot of compression present when you push it to max volume, so audio reproduction remains clear and pure.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a great THD performance. At normal listening volumes, its audio reproduction is largely clean and pure. There's a slight jump in THD when you push the bar to its max volume, which is typical. However, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content, especially if you're a more casual listener.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has an excellent center channel performance. It's an 11.1.4 setup, meaning that it comes with a discrete center channel to improve dialogue reproduction. Voices seem to be localized to pinpoint locations in the soundstage, which is good. Also, its frequency response on the center channel is quite balanced, especially in the mid-range, where most voices reproduce. As a result, you don't have trouble following the action on your screen.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has an impressive surrounds performance. It's an 11.1.4 setup that can playback common 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital and DTS, which are often found on streaming platforms. Since it comes with two discrete surround speakers, it provides a more clear and real representation of sound effects in the soundstage. Audio seems like it's coming from all around you, resulting in a truly immersive sound. Since these channels have a balanced frequency response, these sound effects reproduce with accuracy, which is great.

Like the Samsung HW-Q950T, the Samsung HW-Q950A only plays 5.1 surround sound content from its satellites and the subwoofer when in 'Standard' mode. There are also side-firing drivers on each of the satellites. However, in order to activate these drivers, the soundbar needs to be set to either 'Adaptive Sound', 'Surround', or 'Game Pro' mode. Since we perform our tests in 'Standard' mode, these drivers aren't active during our testing process.

The Samsung HW-Q950A uses up-firing speakers on the bar and the satellites to bounce sound off the ceiling and back down towards you to give the illusion of height. It's a typical setup for premium soundbars, but of course, this doesn't sound as real as a discrete localization provided by down-firing speakers that you'll find in home theater setups. The frequency response on these channels is fairly balanced, too, and sound effects reproduce with accuracy as a result.

In our subjective evaluations, we found that the Samsung HW-Q950A offers an immersive listening experience. From the comfort of your couch, you feel like you're right in the middle of the action. The bar does a good job representing sound effects, especially those that come from the sides, so it feels like cars race right past you in chase scenes. Height is fairly good, too, so you get a sense of objects coming from overheard, like helicopters or drones. There's a bit of low-bass missing, so you don't feel as much rumble in action-packed scenes, especially compared to the Samsung HW-Q990B. However, with its subwoofer level adjustment, you have the option to add more thump in the bass, which is nice.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has an incredible selection of sound enhancement features. Unlike the Samsung HW-Q950T, it has an Auto EQ room correction feature that uses a microphone built into the subwoofer to calibrate audio reproduction. Unfortunately, the bass and treble adjustments don't change the frequency response. However, you can customize its sound to your liking using the graphic EQ and presets, including 'Standard', 'Surround', 'Game', and 'Adaptive Sound'. We found that 'Standard' is better suited to stereo content, while 'Adaptive Sound' sounds best with multi-channel content—but, of course, your subjective impressions can vary.

Like a lot of other premium bars on the market, Samsung offers a tool to pair the Samsung HW-Q950A with compatible TVs from the same manufacturer. It's called Q-Symphony, and it uses your TV speakers in tandem with the bar's speakers. While it's advertised to create a more immersive sound, in practice, it doesn't make much of a difference. Audio isn't louder, and the soundstage isn't any wider. If you don't have a compatible Samsung TV, you aren't missing out on much.

The Samsung HW-Q950A comes with several physical inputs. Thanks to its two Full HDMI In ports, you can use it as a hub between your different devices. However, it lacks an AUX port, so you can't wire older devices to the bar for audio playback.

The Samsung HW-Q950A supports lots of different audio formats over its ARC port. You can watch Dolby Digital content, which is the most commonly found surround sound format, as well as more advanced object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Thanks to user feedback, some compatibility issues between this soundbar and certain TV brands have been identified. The bar supports 5.1 PCM content with Sony TVs, but it seems that there are TV compatibility issues that prevent the bar from playing back this content with LG and Samsung TVs.

There are also some issues with Dolby Atmos support with LG TVs when using Passthrough mode. As reported by multiple users, the bar doesn't playback Atmos files correctly in Passthrough mode. If you don't use eARC for devices like the Xbox, PS5, or Apple TV, or if you pair the bar with a non-LG TV, you won't run into these issues, though.

The Samsung HW-Q950A also has incredible audio format support via Full HDMI In. It supports Dolby Digital, commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms, and more advanced object-based surround formats.

The Samsung HW-Q950A supports both Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical, commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has a good latency performance. It has low latency via Optical and Full HDMI In, so you shouldn't notice a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see when watching over these connections. That said, it may not be as suitable for watching videos over its ARC connection. Keep in mind that some apps and some TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

The Samsung HW-Q950A can passthrough the highest quality bandwidth signals. When connected between your PC and your TV, text on your screen is clear and crisp.

The Samsung HW-Q950A has incredible wireless playback support. You can stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar wirelessly via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Also, unlike the Samsung HW-Q950T, it supports Apple AirPlay 2 connectivity. Chromecast support is region-specific, so you'll want to check your country's product page to see if it's available if you want to use it. You can also use the Tap Sound feature, which lets you "tap" compatible phones against the bar to mirror sound to its speakers.

On top of the bar, a small display indicates the volume level and the settings and inputs. On the front, three small lights flash different patterns based on the settings you change. There's even a solid red light that appears when the microphone is off.

There are a few physical controls on the top of the bar. You can adjust the volume and turn the mic on and off. Also, you can change the input using the multi-function button.

The Samsung HW-Q950A's remote is quite simple and lets you adjust many of the bar's features. However, it isn't a universal remote, so you can't use it to control other devices like your TV. Samsung's SmartThings app is another alternative if you prefer to control the bar from your smartphone.

Like the Samsung HW-Q950T, this soundbar has built-in support for Amazon Alexa. Google Assistant support is available in some regions as well. You can also mute the microphone if you don't want the assistant to hear you.