If you have even a passing interest in tech, it’s impossible to ignore Samsung’s dominance in the market, and its expertise extends to home theater tech including some of the best soundbars on the market. Samsung’s soundbars can use virtual surround to create a wide soundstage, and some models can pair with a Samsung TV’s speakers for even more power. Overall, the Samsung HW-A450 is a good starting point for most people with stereo speakers and a wireless subwoofer. It even comes with a remote that can control both the soundbar and your TV.
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The HW-A450 is a powerful 2.1-channel soundbar with 300W of combined power. This soundbar features a left and right speaker directly in front of the listener with a separate wireless subwoofer. This setup provides the best bang for your buck: the main soundbar provides directional audio while the subwoofer takes care of deep bass sounds, to give your audio more range than is possible with a standalone soundbar or your TVs speakers.
There’s a single optical input for audio plus Bluetooth if you have a compatible TV. It would have been nice to see an HDMI ARC input for wider remote compatibility, but as it stands, the included remote will work with select Samsung TVs. Out of the box, the HW-A450 is a great upgrade to your TV's speakers but won’t replace a surround home theater system. Luckily, you can add the wireless SW-9100S surround speaker kit for a more realistic surround sound experience in movies and games.
The soundbar can be wall-mounted to help get it out of the way, and the Bluetooth connection to your TV means you won’t need to run any wires between the two. If you’re looking to create a clean TV setup with as few wires as possible, the HW-A450 is a great place to start. One thing to note is that a newer HW-B450 model for 2022 includes a more advanced surround simulation, although the savings on this 2021 model make it a more compelling choice for most people.
This standalone three-channel soundbar keeps things simple, ditching the subwoofer for a cleaner setup and even working with a compatible Samsung TV’s built-in speakers for a bit more power. The HW-S50B has five total speakers with a tweeter and woofer on the left and right, plus another woofer in the center. One thing to keep in mind is that woofers are not the same thing as subwoofers. They’re a part of a component speaker system and work with the tweeters to provide a complete range of sound. The center channel speaker is key in keeping dialogue in movies clear and understandable when there are a lot of sound effects.
There is no built-in or included subwoofer, but the HW-S50B is compatible with the SWA-W510 subwoofer if you're looking for some extra punchiness in bass sounds. It also works with the SWA-9200S and SWA-9100S wireless surround speaker kit if you want surround sound. It’s nice that Samsung has given customers an upgrade path if they find the soundbar alone doesn’t deliver quite enough power for their space.
Sound input is provided via optical, Bluetooth, or HDMI ARC and supports Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The HDMI port also supports CEC so you can control your TV and soundbar with one remote. With a compact, rounded design, this soundbar will fit right in with Samsung’s design language, while wireless communication means that with the right TV, you’ll only need to plug in a single wire.
The HW-S60A is a surround-sound-focused soundbar with five speaker channels. The extra channels are on the far left and right of the bar, which serves to improve surround sound replication. Samsung goes one step further with its side speaker thanks to an upward-firing opening called Acoustic Beam, which helps fill the room with improved audio verticality. All in all, you get seven speakers including two tweeters, for a combined power of 200W.
Samsung markets this soundbar as both a standalone speaker system and as a component for a home theater. If you’re looking for more bass response, you can add an SWA-W500 wireless subwoofer. And if you want more surround sound detail, the SWA-9100S surround speakers are compatible.
Audio input is handled by optical, HDMI with ARC, or Bluetooth, allowing for compatibility with nearly any TV regardless of age. It’s also nice that Bluetooth can be used with a compatible TV for a clean wireless setup. With two simultaneous Bluetooth connections, you can use the HW-S60A for music from your phone or with your TV without needing to worry about disconnecting devices to switch.
The HW-Q600B takes the best elements of the above picks and combines them into a complete home theater solution, with a 3.1.2 speaker layout and support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The channels break down into a left, center, and right channel facing forward, plus two upward-firing speakers on the left and right. There’s also a separate wireless subwoofer included. Altogether you get 360W of power, which should be plenty for most living rooms.
You can add a bit more power and further improve surround sound with the SWA-9200S wireless speaker kit. Even without the extra speakers, vertically positioned audio is possible thanks to Samsung’s Acoustic Beam tech on the top of the soundbar. With the kit's ability to expand, you should be able to put together an excellent surround sound experience with the HW-Q600B. For input, you get optical, HDMI in, HDMI with ARC, and Bluetooth connectivity. You can also sync it with a Samsung TV so your built-in TV speakers don’t go to waste.
The HW-Q900A is the ultimate home theater soundbar from Samsung, with a 7.1.2 channel speaker layout featuring a dedicated subwoofer and up-firing stereo speakers. All of this means this soundbar is the best-equipped option to provide accurate and convincing surround sound effects in movies. Speakers are oriented with three left and right speakers at different angles and a center speaker. You can also pair this soundbar with the SWA-9500A wireless rear speaker kit for even more accurate surround sound.
This soundbar has all of the other bells and whistles you could name, including Q-Symphony to put your TV’s speakers to good use, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, and 4K HDR support. Input is handled by two HDMI ports (one with ARC), optical, and Bluetooth. You also get voice assistant support with Alexa integration. The price is a bit steep, but as a compact home theater replacement, it may just be the best fit for a clean TV setup in your living room.
Outdoor TVs are a luxury, but they sure are nice to have in the spring and summer. Aside from weather resistance, the next biggest issue with an outdoor TV is getting enough sound to clearly hear what’s going on. Outside, there is no ceiling and no walls to help contain your audio, meaning you need more power to get the same volume level as inside. The HW-LST70T has four main speakers inside with 210W of power and a three-channel speaker setup featuring a left, right, and center channel. It also comes with a wide-range tweeter so audio can be clearly heard from a larger viewing angle.
If you’ve got one of Samsung’s Terrace TVs, this is a perfect match with wall-mounting and a similar thickness to the TV. Unlike most soundbars, this is taller than it is deep, which allows it to fit right in on the wall. It’s also IP55 rated so if it gets sprayed with a bit of water, there’s nothing to worry about.
Input is available with optical and Bluetooth connectivity. For the best results, you’ll probably want to stick with Bluetooth, as any opening from a physical cable can be an ingress point for water. It also supports Wi-Fi so you can cast to it using the Samsung SmartThings app, making it easy to play music for the whole party right from your Android phone.
Get the right Samsung soundbar for your needs
There are a lot of numbers thrown your way when you start looking at soundbars, but one of the most significant sets is the channels. Luckily, all of the best soundbars use the same labeling. For standard stereo audio, the number is 2.0, with the first number representing how many speakers there are and the second referencing how many subwoofers there are. Bass sounds are much less directional than mids and highs, so typically a single powerful subwoofer is all that’s needed. If a third set of numbers is added, that represents the sound that comes from above which soundbars typically reflect off of the ceiling.
Older style surround sound systems were very literal with their channel distribution, with speakers positioned all around you. But this requires quite a bit of space and quite a bit of wiring to get set up. These soundbars are able to use their speakers to create a virtual surround effect that can use the 5.1 or 7.1 digital signals common with the best streaming devices. You can even get the benefits of good positional audio with something like the Playstation 5 and a game like Gran Turismo 7.
The thing is, many people aren’t looking for a movie theater experience in their living room and will be more than happy with a solid 2.1 setup. The 2.1 HW-A450 nails this with a dedicated subwoofer to help keep audio from sounding too tinny and to help keep detail high when there's a lot of bass, such as an explosion in an action movie. You can expand it with surround speakers but if you’re looking to create a home theater experience, starting with a soundbar with a center channel will go a long way to keeping sound quality high.
The HWQ300B is more of a complete home theater setup in a box thanks to its 3.1.2 speaker setup and a dedicated subwoofer. With support for vertical spatial audio and the option to add a wireless rear speaker kit, this soundbar could truly be a stand-in for a complete surround sound setup. While the more expensive HW-Q900 adds a lot of nice features, for most people, the cheaper entry to the Q-series will deliver more than enough performance with convincing virtual surround sound.
