Samsung has continuously raised the bar for home entertainment systems over the years, earning its soundbars a reputation for superior sound quality and groundbreaking innovation. Signature features such as Q-Symphony and SpaceFit Sound have revolutionized the listening experience, offering users a deeply immersive soundscape that is finely tuned to their listening environments.

This standard of excellence has been recognized by industry experts and reviewers, with T3 awarding the HW-Q990C “Best Soundbar” title for its immersive audio and “exceptional object-based sonics,” and HomeTheaterReview giving the soundbar an “Editor’s Choice” distinction and commenting: “It sounds excellent, regardless of what type of content you send its way.”

This year, Samsung continues to push the boundaries with its soundbar lineup, introducing enhanced AI audio features and connectivity options to captivate consumers and home theater enthusiasts alike.

The flagship Q-series soundbar, HW-Q990D, offers impressive 11.1.4-channel surround sound and an upgraded Q-Symphony feature. Powered by AI, the device analyzes and synchronizes voice channels for clear dialogues and immersive soundscape across all speakers. Paired with SpaceFit Sound Pro for customized audio calibration, the soundbar also ensures an immersive experience in any space, while HDMI 2.1 and 4K/120Hz passthrough provides connectivity options that meets the demands of modern home entertainment systems.

“We are thrilled to once again be acknowledged as the market leader in soundbars, a milestone that reflects the positive feedback from our customers over the years,” said Cheolgi Kim, EVP of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Building on this success, we will continue to push the boundaries of home entertainment with superior sound quality and advanced connectivity features, leveraging AI-based sound technology to strengthen the consumer experience and Samsung’s position in the global market.”

For more information, visit www.samsung.com.my 

Samsung Electronics has been recognized as a leader in the global soundbar market, according to the market research firm, FutureSource Consulting. A newly released report published on February 28 notes that Samsung topped the soundbar market for the ninth year in a row, commanding 20.2% in market share and accounting for 18.4% of the industry sales volume in 2022.

Samsung soundbars, including the premium Q-series lineup, are expertly crafted and fine-tuned for powerful and immersive sound quality, enhanced compatibility with TVs, and sleek and modern design. Features such as SpaceFit Sound have been praised by customers and reviewers for calibrating sounds to fit the acoustic properties of each space for tailor-made sound experiences.

In fact, Samsung soundbars have impressed industry experts and reviewers, with outlets such as AVForums selecting the HW-Q990B as the “Best in Class” Award winner for 2022 and Newsweek commenting that the HW-S800B “delivers impressive room-filling sound” in such a compact form.

This year Samsung is taking its soundbar lineup to the next level with captivating cinematic sounds and premium audio features to win the hearts of consumers and home theater enthusiasts.

HW-Q990C

Samsung’s HW-Q990C is a flagship Q-series soundbar with an impressive 11.1.4-channel setup and Dolby Atmos audio. It comes with the latest Q-Symphony 3.0 feature, which analyzes and processes voice channels and audio elements to deliver perfectly synchronized audio using every speaker in both the TV and the soundbar. It also comes with SpaceFit Sound Pro, which calibrates sounds to match the acoustic properties of each space, and Game Mode Pro, which optimizes sounds by game genres for added realism when played through Samsung Gaming Hub.

“Samsung is committed to providing our customers with an industry-leading home entertainment experience that meets the evolving needs of our customers,” said Cheolgi Kim, EVP of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung soundbars are the perfect immersive match for Samsung TVs, exemplifying the pinnacle of cinematic sound with smart audio features and enhanced connectivity.”

According to Futuresource, the global soundbar market, which has been showing steady growth of about 5.7% over the past three years, recorded 23.16 million units in sales in 2022 and is expected to reach 26 million in sales by 2025.

For more information, please visit https://www.samsung.com.

(From left) Mingyo Oh, Haekwang Park and Shinhye Choi, at Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business behind Premium Soundbar, the HW-Q950A

With the increasing popularity of large screen televisions and the continued addition of further OTT (over-the-top) services, more users are looking to establish a theater-like experience in their homes. On top of that, social distancing measures have required people to go out less, stoking their desire to enjoy premium visual and audio experiences from home.

Full, clear and deep sound plays a crucial role in ensuring that content is delivered as it was originally intended. Paving the way for new audio experiences, Samsung Electronics introduced its high-end soundbar models, the HW-Q950A and HW-Q900A, in May of this year. The new premium models take sound quality to the next level with up to 16 channels and a host of enhanced functions that bring even greater satisfaction to users. Samsung Newsroom met with the product experts of the 2021 soundbar models to find out the secret behind their powerful and precise sound.

11.1.4-Channel Surround Sound That Fills the Entire Room

Haekwang Park, Principal Engineer at the Sound Device Lab, Samsung’s Visual Display Business

Thanks to our ever-evolving content culture, sound is getting richer, fuller and more expressive. The days of one-directional (mono) sound are long gone as we have ushered in the era of multi-directional channels that allow sound to fill up the surrounding space. “Sound is becoming increasingly important as people nowadays watch a wide variety of programs that place more emphasis on audio quality, such as music shows and films,” says Haekwang Park, Principal Engineer from the Sound lab at Samsung’s Visual Display Business.

To live up to consumers’ heightened expectations, Samsung has spared no effort in developing high-quality soundbar products that deliver very realistic sound. In 2016, Samsung brought its first 5.1.4-channel soundbar model to market. This soundbar was equipped with left, right and middle channels, two rear channels, a subwoofer and four upward-firing speakers, and delivered immersive, three-dimensional surround sound. More channels were added to later models, including a surround channel on the side of the soundbar and a wide surround channel to deliver sound from the front and sides. In 2020, Samsung introduced a 9.1.4-channel model.

In 2021, Samsung went a step further with its latest 11.1.4-channel model, the HW-Q950A, which features two rear surround channels. Product planner Mingyo Oh explained that, “The newly added channels are located on the sides of the rear surround speakers. They add liveliness to dynamic scenes involving things like airplanes in flight and car chases by allowing the sound to hit the side walls before it bounces back to where the audience is positioned.” The premium soundbar delivers an outstanding audio experience by filling previously quiet moments with powerful, immersive sound.

Mingyo Oh from the Product Planning Group at Samsung’s Visual Display Business

Delivering Sound Exactly as Intended With Advanced Rendering and Waveguide Techniques

A channel is a passage for sound that dictates which direction it travels. This is why having a higher number of channels provides better, smoother sound. It usually requires costly equipments to offer 11.1.4-channel sound, but Samsung’s HW-Q950A is able to provide a breathtaking 3D surround sound experience with only four speakers thanks to its unparalleled rendering and waveguide techniques.

Rendering is the process of creating a way for the audio output to deliver sound exactly as the artist intended. The Samsung developers made it possible to deliver an optimal acoustic experience with the soundbar system by tapping into its cutting-edge rendering technology. “To provide the most natural audio experience to users, we have carefully designed our products to deliver sound seamlessly. The HW-Q950A soundbar delivers sound that is reflected in various directions and arrives at users’ ears at the optimal angle,” related Shinhye Choi.

Shinhye Choi from the Global Product Marketing Group at Samsung’s Visual Display Business

An advanced waveguide technique is also indispensable when it comes to delivering next-level sound. A multi-channel speaker emits sound in multiple directions, and the waveguide technique allows components in the speaker to deliver sound in the direction intended by the developer. Haekwang Park reported that, “Top-tier experts at the Visual Display Business’s Sound Lab and Samsung Audio Lab in California came together to design the parts that went into the speakers. Our soundbar models are meticulously constructed to deliver world-class sound performance.”

How SpaceFit Sound+ and Q-Symphony Further Elevate the Viewing Experience

Usually, most of the sound emitted by speakers hits walls or curtains before reaching the audience’s ears. This explains why the same sound is heard differently depending on the dimensions and layout of the viewing environment. Samsung’s HW-Q950A soundbar and 2021 TV models deliver stunning sound that tunes into users’ viewing environments by analyzing the dimensions of the space they’re in using SpaceFit Sound+.

SpaceFit Sound+ combines SpaceFit Sound technology, which delivers optimized audio, and Auto EQ (auto equalizer) technology. Together, the SpaceFit Sound and Auto EQ solutions use embedded microphones to thoroughly survey the viewing space, and then feed that data to the soundbar to enable it to deliver a tailored sound experience.

But the collaboration between the Samsung TV and the soundbar does not stop there. Samsung’s innovative, proprietary Q-Symphony technology additionally combines and enhances the sound generated by the TV and soundbar to guarantee optimal sound quality. Normally, when you connect a soundbar to your TV, the sound is emitted only from the soundbar. What’s more, some technical issues involving out-of-sync sound and tone disparities between the two devices had been observed. Q-Symphony overcomes these issues by incorporating a stereoscopic sound effect that allows sound to play through the speakers that wrap around the TV in addition to through the soundbar, providing richer and more realistic sound compared to when sound is produced through the soundbar alone.

Combining Truly Rich Sound With Highly Convenient Functionality

As with other models, Samsung has placed great emphasis on creating a new level of acoustic immersion with the HW-Q950A. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also include a host of convenient features. To begin with, the Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) feature clarifies dialogue in the viewer’s favorite shows to help them hear on-screen conversations clearly amid a variety of background noises. With an embedded microphone, the soundbar automatically measures noise levels and enhances voices if the noise continues for more than three seconds or surpasses a certain threshold.

And the HW-Q950A optimizes sound for different types of scenes, such as those with loud sound effects and dialogue-heavy scenes. For instance, the Adaptive Sound feature analyzes sound signals to deliver an optimal sound experience for each scene. Moreover, Game Mode Pro delivers a powerful, immersive gaming experience with subwoofers and upward-firing speakers. The Tap Sound feature also enables users to simply tap their smartphones on the soundbar when listening to a song to take their listening experience to the next level.

The motto of Samsung’s soundbar developers is to get the basics right when it comes to sound. “We are working our hardest to deliver sound of the highest quality,” the developers related. “We do this by collaborating closely with groups of experts and employing Samsung’s advanced measuring and simulation techniques to set clear standards for what we define as ‘optimal’ sound.”

The developers’ ultimate goal is to deliver a best-in-class acoustic experience to users regardless of the type of content they’re consuming, or the specific features of their viewing environment. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they make this dream a reality.

Samsung Electronics today announced that its Neo QLED TVs¹ became the first in the industry to receive certification of Spatial Sound Optimization from Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker(VDE).

Different watching environments — for example, a living room, a bedroom, or a terrace — create different sound experiences. The VDE’s Spatial Sound Optimization certification is given to products that offer a consistent sound experience regardless of the surrounding environment.

To reduce such variation in sound, Samsung has added the SpaceFit Sound feature to its Neo QLED TVs, enabling its products to provide a sound experience consistent to a standard listening environment.

Built-in microphones are utilized to recognize the surrounding environment like curtains, carpets, and walls, which can affect the sound. For example, when the TV recognizes that the carpet in the living room is absorbing the mid-range and treble sound, it calibrates its sound to surroundings by boosting the mid and the treble.

When the TV is placed close to the wall, the bass sound can be distorted since there is little space between the wall and the TV. ‘SpaceFit Sound’ can recognize the issue and reinforce the bass to provide a clearer sound.

As more and more customers seek to personalize their space according to their lifestyles, TVs are being watched not only from living rooms and bedrooms, but also in workrooms, and even in kitchens.

The sounds reflected off the surrounding walls, ceilings, and floors are much louder than the sound we directly hear. This means users can feel the sounds from the same product differently depending on the unique size and shape of the place and wall materials.

While users were previously required to configure the audio manually, ‘SpaceFit Sound’ automatically recognizes the users’ environment so no additional setups are required.

“SpaceFit Sound optimizes the sound from content by analyzing user’s surrounding environment,” said Younghun Choi, EVP and Head of R&D Team of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “What we want is for our customers to just enjoy their TV without any hassle.”

¹ Certified models: Q70A, Q80A, Q90A, Q700A, Q800A, Q900A TVs