Samsung HW-S60A  Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-S60A has a similar design to the Samsung HW-S60T. It has a rounded design, with a plastic grille on each side to cover the Side Horn Speakers. The bar is mostly of plastic, and the top and front are covered in fabric.

The Samsung HW-S60A doesn't come with a dedicated subwoofer, but you can purchase Samsung's SWA-W500 subwoofer separately.

This setup doesn't include satellites. However, you can purchase the Samsung Wireless Rear Speaker kit separately.

The Samsung HW-S60A is a fairly compact soundbar. It should fit between the legs of most 55" TVs. Also, it isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen unless your TV sits flush on your table.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a great build quality. The bar is mostly made of plastic, which feels solid and durable. There are also plastic grilles on the side to help protect the Side Horn Speakers. That said, the fabric covering its front and sides may rip or get dirty easily.

• User Manual
• Mounting template with screws (2x) and spacers (2x)
• 2x mounting brackets
• Remote with batteries (2xAA)
• Power adapter for soundbar (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Power cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung HW-S60A has a decent stereo frequency response. It struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble found in bass-heavy music and action-packed movies. That said, the rest of the range is quite balanced and neutral, making it suitable for a wide range of audio content. You can also customize its sound to your liking using the included graphic EQ and presets as well as bass and treble adjustments.

We tested the Samsung HW-S60A with several bass and treble calibration settings, but none of them brought the slope of its stereo frequency response closer to zero. As a result, we recommend its default settings if you prefer a more neutral sound.

Note: Normally, we calibrate the bar using bass and treble adjustments. We ran some passes after adjusting the bass and treble levels; however, we noticed that this didn't change the stereo frequency response. We're looking into this issue, and we'll update the review when we have more information.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a good stereo soundstage performance. Its soundstage is perceived to be a touch wider than the bar itself, but the bar isn't very wide, and it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem larger than that. That said, it has good focus, so objects like voices and footsteps seem to come from an accurate, pinpoint location rather than a more general area.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a satisfactory dynamics performance. Despite its compact size, it gets pretty loud, which is nice if you like to turn up the volume for parties or listening in large rooms. However, there's some compression present when you play it at max volume.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a great THD performance. There's some distortion in the bass range at normal listening volumes, but it falls mostly within good limits, so your audio reproduction is mostly clean and pure. There's a small jump in distortion when you push the bar to max volume, but this may not be noticeable with real-life content.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a great center channel performance. Unlike the Samsung HW-S60T, it comes with a discrete center channel, which helps reproduce dialogue more clearly and accurately. Though it struggles to reproduce low-bass, this shouldn't be too noticeable since there typically isn't much low-bass in audio content played on the center channel.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a passable surrounds performance. It uses its Side Horn speakers to create a phantom localization. Unfortunately, this doesn't sound as clear and real as discrete surround speakers, so objects in the soundstage like footsteps and voices may not be clearly and accurately represented. Audio seems like it's coming from in front of you, rather than from speakers placed all around you.

While this soundbar doesn't support Dolby Atmos content, the next-generation Samsung HW-S60B/S61B does.

Update 02/16/2022: Firmware version 1010.1 adds an additional EQ preset called 'Game'

The Samsung HW-S60A has an adequate selection of sound enhancement features. There's a 7-band graphic EQ in the app to help you customize its sound, as well as some EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Music', 'Game', and 'Adaptive Sound'. Using the app, you can also access the 'Voice Enhancement' and 'Night Mode' features, which can be handy while watching TV. The remote lets you access the Center and Side Level adjustments.

This soundbar also comes with some sound enhancement features that we don't test. It has built-in Acoustic Beam technology, which the manufacturer advertises to help create a more immersive sound. There's also a 'Tap Sound' feature that lets you mirror audio from your phone by tapping it against the bar, and 'AV Sync', which you can find on the remote and the manufacturer advertises to help reduce latency.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a few physical inputs, including an HDMI ARC and Optical In port. However, it doesn't have a Full HDMI In port, so you can't use it as a hub between different devices. Also, it lacks an AUX port, so you can't wire older devices to the bar for audio playback.

The Samsung HW-S60A has decent audio format support via ARC. It supports Dolby Digital, the most common surround sound format frequently found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms. However, it doesn't support lossless or object-based surround formats like Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, which can be disappointing for some users.

The Samsung HW-S60A supports both Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical. These formats are commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a great latency performance. It has low latency via ARC and Optical, so your audio and video should be mostly in sync. As a result, it's suitable for watching movies and videos over these connections. However, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

Note: This soundbar also comes with an AV Sync feature that's advertised to help reduce latency, but we don't currently test for this.

The Samsung HW-S60A has incredible wireless playback connectivity. You can wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Unlike the Samsung HW-S60T, it also supports Apple AirPlay 2.

This soundbar has a few lights beneath its physical controls that flash different patterns and colors based on the input. There's a solid red light when the microphone is muted. The lights also flash when you adjust the volume, change the sound mode, or change the input.

There are some physical controls on the middle of the bar. They let you adjust the volume, mute and unmute the voice assistant, and adjust the input.

The Samsung HW-S60A has a simple remote that lets you control most of the bar's settings. It's not a universal remote, so you can't use it to control your TV. Since the bar's compatible with the Samsung SmartThings app, you can also control it from your mobile devices if you want.

Update 02/16/2022: Updating the bar to firmware version 1010.1 doesn't add Google Assistant support, contrary to some reports.

This soundbar has built-in support for Amazon Alexa. If you don't want it to listen to you, there's also a mic mute button on the bar.