Samsung HW-Q990F  Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar is angular with a gunmetal colorway that Samsung calls ‘Black’ or 'Titan Black' (depending on your region), but it’s not as jet black as the Samsung HW-Q990D. With the prevalence of silver TVs, the soft black matches well when paired with a silver or deep black framed TV. It retains the same dimensions and a similar silhouette as the last generation. The top of the bar has a horizontal ridged texture, which is a visual departure from the flat and uniform grill of the previous generation.

The subwoofer is squareish with rounded corners, leaving the dual eight-inch drivers exposed without a grille. It's a sealed sub design, so it doesn't require a port, and it looks more modern than the previous generation's Q-Series subwoofer. The visually clean and squat shape is somewhat reminiscent of subs that accompany bookshelf speakers by the likes of SVS or Kanto. While the shape is almost playful with rounded edges, it's not stylistically a complete match with the angular bar, though the colors are the same. Arguably, the last generation's subwoofers' utilitarian look isn't a perfect match either.

While the subwoofer received a redesign, the Samsung Q990F's satellites appear virtually identical to the last generation's, only in a lighter shade of black. They're angular to match the bar and are covered in perforated metal grilles.

The bar is about the same size as the Samsung HW-Q990D. It’s too wide to fit between the legs of a 65-inch TV, but it’s not especially tall, so it won’t block the bottom of your screen.

The Samsung Q990F's subwoofer is cube-shaped. Its housing is also fairly compact, especially considering the driver is the same eight inches in diameter as the considerably taller and deeper Samsung HW-Q990D's sub.

The satellites are roughly the same dimensions as the last couple of generations in the Q-Series of soundbars. They're not very large compared to the Sonos Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc Ultra, which includes the chunkier Sonos Era 300 satellites, so you can fit them in most living rooms without taking up too much space.

In the box you get two L brackets and the necessary screws and grommets to mount the bar to your wall. If you want to mount the satellites, you’ll need to provide your own hardware.

The Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar has excellent build quality. The bar is a hefty slab of metal and dense plastic with tight seams and rubber feet. The controls have a satisfying clickiness along the top of the bar, and there are routes and slots for the connections along the bottom and back. To match, the satellites are made of a similar metal, and they feel solid without sharp edges.

The subwoofer feels dense and heavy with sturdy feet. Despite its smaller size, it's not lightweight compared to the larger subwoofer included with the Samsung HW-Q990D. However, one potential point of vulnerability is that the driver is uncovered, which might not be ideal if you have pets or young children.

• User manual
• Roon access code
• Remote control with batteries (2x AAA)
• 2x power cables (2.3 m / 7.5 ft)
• 2x power cables (1.5 m / 5 ft)
• HDMI cable (2 m / 6.6 ft)
• 2x bar mounting brackets
• 2x bar mounting screws
• 2x bar mounting grommets
• Wall mounting guide
• 4x rubber feet

The Samsung HW-Q990F has an excellent stereo frequency response. We measured it in 'Standard' mode with room calibration. It outputs a tight bass response, clear mids, and a bright treble. Compared to the last generation, the redesigned subwoofer rattles less when playing back deep bass frequencies, but it's a little less punchy and slightly more boomy. The soundbar plays back mids like voices and melodic instruments evenly, so they cut through well. For most people, the difference is hard to parse, but the HW-Q990F sounds very slightly brighter on harmonics for cymbal hits or with metallic sound effects with extra sheen. In all, we're splitting hairs between the two.

Testing out the 'Adaptive' mode artificially widens the soundstage and sends more of the audio to the stereo channels to the rear satellites, which sounds less accurate. It's tuned nearly the same as 'Standard' mode with a touch more low mid-range, which works for genres like hip-hop. However, it feels more like a novelty with too much of the audio coming from behind, which muddles the stereo mix.

The Samsung Q990F didn’t require additional tuning to calibrate it for our testing room. We performed the room correction, left it on the default ‘Standard’ mode, and that’s it. If you prefer a different tuning, you can use the seven-band EQ available with 'Standard' Sound Mode or the Bass and Treble sliders with the other modes.

‘Standard’ mode offers a good stereo soundstage without any obvious holes in the image. It’s wide enough that the sound coming from in front of you is natural with good focus, and doesn’t seem exaggerated or too narrow and boxy.

Testing out the ‘Adaptive’ mode sends widely panned stereo channels to the rear satellites, leaving holes in the stereo image. You may prefer this setting for some music and audio content, but it’s not as cohesive and consistent sounding across different content as the ‘Standard’ mode.

The stereo dynamics are excellent. There’s very little compression at average listening levels, allowing the quiet sounds to play back quieter than the dramatic loud effects. However, the low and mid-bass frequencies compress at max volume, which causes deep rumbling effects to lose some of their punch, though max volume is rather loud for most home theaters.

The discrete center channel has amazing accuracy. It sounds balanced and detailed, meaning voices are reproduced accurately, with the right amount of weight and clarity.

The surround performance is very good. The low-end frequencies playback with enough thump to fill out tense action scenes, though the high-bass isn’t very boomy by default. Dialogue cuts through busy scenes without clutter, and trebly effects sound bright and detailed from all around. Since the soundbar has an 11.1.4 configuration, it can correctly process surround formats like Dolby Digital and DTS. Using ‘Adaptive’ mode exaggerates the surround effect, compared to ‘Standard’ mode we measured, but it sounds less cohesive across the sound field.

The Samsung Q990F's height performance is very similar to that of the Samsung HW-Q990D from the last generation. It has four up-firing drivers that ricochet object-based audio formats off of your ceiling to create an added dimension with formats like Dolby Atmos. We measured the response in ‘Standard’ mode. It's fairly balanced. Dialogue cuts through soundtracks or cinematic effects. Engine revs can sound a little overemphasized in the satellite's mix, and, depending on your hearing sensitivity and the mix, trebly sounds like metallic clinks are a little piercing, but others may appreciate the extra detail.

Tracking along the horizontal plane has good focus from left to right, and the movement of sound from behind to in front of you is well-executed. The vertical plane isn't especially tall, but it's not distracting or artificially exaggerated either. There's a decent amount of rumble for deep bassy effects. It's a little weaker in the higher bass registers, but it's not absent or overwhelming and retains dynamics well.

The surround sound from the rear speakers can occasionally slightly drown out the height effect during exciting scenes. Still, you can adjust volume levels in the app for a different balance between the drivers than the default.

The Samsung HW-Q990F hosts a fantastic selection of sound enhancements. The soundbar calibrates itself to your room with 'SpaceFit Sound Pro.' You can choose between four listening modes: 'Standard' (which is the one we used), ‘Game,' 'Surround,' and 'Adaptive.' There are both EQ presets and a comprehensive graphic EQ, but you can only access the graphic EQ in 'Standard'; otherwise, it's Bass and Treble sliders for the other modes.

You can adjust the tuning for different content mixes and listening needs with Night mode and two types of dialogue enhancement: 'Voice Enhancement’ alters the EQ to push up frequencies where speech reside in the mix, and ‘Active Voice Amplifier Pro' behaves like a dynamic digital signal processor (DSP) emphasizing speech, but the difference is subtle with well-mixed audio. The soundbar also offers control over height and relative volume level adjustments. Private Rear Sound lets you localize the audio to just the rear satellites, so you can control how enveloping the playback is, if you don't want to disturb people in the same room.

Other features unique to the SmartThings ecosystem include Group Play, which lets you group together compatible devices (from 2024 onwards) with the soundbar to receive and share audio. Samsung includes Q-Symphony, which utilizes compatible Samsung TVs in combination with up to three of the manufacturer's sound devices grouped in the same ecosystem to simultaneously playback audio. Your experience will vary depending on your TV model and the particulars of any other devices you own from the brand.

The physical connections of the soundbar include eARC, Optical, and two full HDMI 2.1 ports. There's a USB-A port for service only. One of the thoughtful details you get with this flagship is routing underneath the bar for the A/C power to keep the overall appearance tidy. However, much of the connectivity is wireless, like Wireless Dolby Atmos available with compatible Samsung TVs. If you have a compatible LG TV, check out the LG S95AR, which supports wireless TV audio streaming.

The soundbar supports all the common audio formats via eARC from Dolby Digital and DTS, through to object-based Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. There's also support for Eclipsa Audio, which hasn't been widely adopted yet, but you get some futureproofing as it's incorporated into some of Samsung's TVs, too. While Samsung's documentation doesn't list DTS-HD MA as supported, we were able to confirm that the format works with our Blu-ray player.

Both of the HDMI In ports support most audio formats like Dolby Digital Plus and DTS, giving you plenty of options for setting up your home theater’s connections. While Samsung's documentation doesn't list DTS-HD MA as supported, we were able to confirm that the format works with our Blu-ray player.

The Samsung Q990F's Optical port supports Dolby Digital, DTS, and two-channel PCM, so you can use it with older devices or devices that lack HDMI.

The Samsung HW-Q990F has outstanding latency over its eARC connection. Most audio formats play back with low enough latency that voices ought to match up with the people speaking. Formats like Dolby Digital Plus Atmos that need more processing (than PCM, for instance) by the soundbar have slightly higher latency, though it still lands within good values. You can additionally adjust the A/V sync within the soundbar's companion app. Its latency performance is nearly identical to the Samsung HW-Q990D.

The HDMI In latency is remarkably good. The lip-sync matching is tight across all audio formats we tested. This low latency suits next-gen consoles well, so you don't miss a beat during fast-paced gameplay. While that can vary with different configurations, you can use the companion app to adjust the A/V sync settings.

The Optical latency is impressive. Audio latency via Optical tends to have slightly elevated results compared to HDMI connectivity, which is normal. However, PCM and Dolby Digital latency are still within good values. The Audio Sync feature in the app can compensate for lip sync mismatch if needed, too.

The video passthrough to TV boasts fantastic performance. It reaches 120Hz refresh rates with 4k video (with 4:4:4 chroma sub-sampling) to ensure color looks vibrant and not washed out at high resolutions. Like the Samsung HW-Q990D, we were able to get 8k video (8-bit and 10-bit with 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling) at up to 60Hz refresh rate. Otherwise, HDR formats receive support, and adaptive formats typically used for gaming, like FreeSync and G-SYNC, can pass through as well.

The Samsung Q990F covers a diverse range of wireless playback connections. In addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Spotify, and Apple AirPlay 2, the soundbar is Roon Ready. Roon is a third-party app that needs a subscription, and it lets you access your audio library with extra tools like personalized EQ and support for formats like PCM and MQA, but we haven't tested it.

Compatible Samsung TVs from 2022 onwards allow you to use Wireless Dolby Atmos audio without the need for an HDMI cable.

On the right side of the bar (if you're facing it), there's a scrolling display behind the perforated metal grill. The display is limited to about four characters, depending on their size in the matrix, and it can be a little slow to show all of the information, as you might expect with longer strings of letters. You press the 'i’ button on the remote to prompt the bar to display settings such as current input and audio format.

The top of the bar has four clicky physical buttons. These address input selection or a multi-function button on the far left (if you're facing the bar), volume down and up, and a physical microphone mute. There's also a pairing button on the sub and on the satellites. You can use Tap Sound with configured apps by tapping your phone on the left side of the soundbar, too. In practice, Tap Sound is a little finicky, and you need to set it up with each device.

The Samsung Q990F's remote gives you access to most of the same soundbar features as the SmartThings companion app, though the app also connects other Smart devices by the brand in one place. The remote's gear icon accesses more advanced settings, which the app does too, and perhaps with more expediency. However, for immediate control over basics like volume, input selection, playback, and playback modes, the remote is handy and clearly labelled.

Voice assistant support can vary by region—your location and your variant. Depending on your location, the manufacturer advertises that it supports Google Home. Our unit is the U.S.A. model, and we weren't able to get Google Home to work despite several attempts and workarounds. The bar also supports Amazon Alexa. Of course, if voice assistants make you feel a little uncomfortable about your data's privacy, you can physically mute the microphone.