SAMSUNG HW-Q990D 11.1.4-CHANNEL ATMOS SOUNDBAR

The soundbar does have a feature Samsung calls Spacefit Sound that the manual says, “analyzes the user’s listening space with the Soundbar’s microphone and provides optimal sound for the space. Sound optimization proceeds automatically.” However, I couldn’t ever discern any difference in sound whatsoever—especially in the bass performance—when toggling this feature on/off.

Using the optimization didn’t seem to do any harm, so I left it turned on.

PERFORMANCE

After playing with the channel levels using a test disc with Dolby Atmos tones, I bumped the front height, width, and side channels, and rear height levels a bit. I lowered the subwoofer by 4 db and sat to listen.

What constantly stood out to me was the spaciousness of the sound. It just seemed to open the room up, with a big front presentation that was thoroughly wrapped around the sides and back of the room and a wonderful canopy of sound that spread overhead. On numerous occasions, the bar would clearly place distinct sounds exactly in a place where there wasn’t a speaker for eight feet in any direction, and the sense of height and action happening overhead was entertaining and convincing.

It was fun to experiment with two-channel music and see how the bar handled stereo versus surround, which extrapolates any incoming signal up to 11.1.4. We just saw a traveling production of “My Fair Lady,” and my youngest daughter asked to listen to the soundtrack on Tidal. In surround mode, the opening of “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” has the opening male voices split in the rear channels before moving up to the front for Marni Nixon’s vocals and a nice chorus swell across the front, whereas in stereo they were just presented in the front right and left front speakers.

Miles Davis’ opening track

“So What” from Kind of Blue in surround mode almost sounds like you’re in the middle of the group, with instruments placed around you in a circle. Davis is right up front where you’d expect him, spread wide across the front of the room, but pianist Bill Evans is spread into the left rear and side of the room making for a very full sound. Most interesting, drummer Jimmy Cobb was positioned in the right side of the room where no speaker existed, sounding like he was set up with his kit about eight feet to my right. Taking it out of surround and into standard where the bar played in 2.1, the music still retained stereo channel separation, but utterly collapsed back into the bar.

The only time I heard the sub give any grumblings and sounds of distress was the very opening moments of “Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times” from the Dune: Part Two soundtrack.

That opens with some monster, ultra-low frequency bass drums, and when played at high volumes, I heard the sub chuff a bit. However, as interesting as the Kind of Blue mix sounded, these ethereal, dreamy tracks from Dune sounded wonderful in surround sound, really filling the room and surrounding me with a really great vibe totally fitting the music.

Whether you like stereo (Standard) or the full surround treatment will likely depend on your mood and the content. The music listening made me wish that the bar had a couple of different speaker-level presets to dial the channel levels of the rear down for music, and up for movies. Having two presets to quickly jump between would be a great feature.

Listening to music mixed with Dolby Atmos will have you re-experiencing favorite albums, and I played a bunch using the TV’S Tidal app. You expect The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to have a trippy mix, and it does, with each song really pushing audio effects, instrumentation, and vocals around the room. In “Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds,” John’s vocals are tangibly wide, and when the chorus comes in after John’s opening, the vocals and music really fill in the back of the room, and you can also really appreciate the layering of vocals in the repeating chorus. “Getting Better” has instrumentation that swirls around the room, and “Within You Without You” has dreamy sitars and strings that move around the room from front to back.

The Doors “Riders on the Storm” has a rain storm that comes in from the sides of the room and then spreads to the back with thunder that pans through the rear speakers. Right before Jim Morrison starts singing, there’s a nice thunderclap overhead, and while Morrison’s vocals are big up front, you can also hear the backing vocals more clearly in the rear channels.

Rush’s Signals received the Atmos treatment (I’m sure Mike Mettler has a full review of this posted somewhere!) and “Subdivisions” is a great example of how a new mix can give an old track a new and modern feel. There’s a

ton of rear and side fill, but when Mark Dailey repeats the chorus line “Subdivisions” it comes from overhead.

To test how the bar handled DTS:X content, I broke out a few trusty DTS Demo discs (numbers #18 and 19) which featured a variety of movie scenes with DTS:X audio and 4K HDR video.

During the big finale attack in Battleship, with the classic battleship dropping “some lead on those mother…”, you hear the clang and rattle of the heavy anchor chains dragging across the deck from the back of the room to the front, then the twirl of sound as shells fly overhead and into the back of the room, followed by a debris field that rains around the room. Bass is deep and authoritative, letting you feel the explosions which have different weights and impacts based on their size. All the while dialogue is clear and understandable.

The classic T-rex escaping from its pen scene from the OG Jurassic Park still holds up, and in DTS:X you hear rain pattering all around, clearly sounding different when inside the vehicle where it is bouncing off the plastic roofs of the jeeps versus the room-filling rain when outside along with the impact tremors of T-rex foot stomps. Thunderclaps fill the room and T-rex’s roar is huge from all channels.

While escaping the volcano in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, you hear the sounds of dinosaurs running past you and into the back of the room, followed by the smoke cloud from the volcano that passed through the room. Then as they fall into the water, you hear things pelting off the roof of the plexiglass ball, with the sounds of water and bubbles drifting up overhead as the sphere sinks into the ocean.

What the bar really excels at is creating a spacious atmosphere in the room. There is a scene in King Kong (2005) where Naomi Watts’ character awakes next to Kong in the jungle, and you are immersed in the sounds of birds and bugs, and just this huge sense of outdoor space all around. The speakers disappear and create a canopy of sound all around that perfectly places you in the environment. Then you are jarred right out of it when Kong slams his fist on the ground, shaking the room with the massive blow, and then bellowing a massive growl and snorts that you feel in your chest. I noticed this expansive sound and just general “openness” throughout many movies and Atmosencoded programs I watched.

Occasionally when something was starting or when changing sources there would be a brief single burst of digital static.

I’ve had numerous other bars connected to this same TV and never experienced that before, but it happened enough times with the Q990D that I felt it was worth mentioning.

CONCLUSION

The Samsung HW-Q990D soundbar offers a ton to love about it, in a simple-to-install package delivering performance that would have been unfathomable for a soundbar even a few years ago. Usually, when I’m reviewing a soundbar, I wish I was out in my main room listening to my reference system (a 7.3.6 Trinnov rig), but the Q990D never left me feeling wanting and did everything you would expect an immersive Atmos experience to deliver.

With the addition of 4K/120 Hz support and the new listening modes, Samsung has evolved an already great product into an even better one. While there is still some room for improving the ergonomics and adding some test tones and room correction, the Samsung QN-Q990D sets the benchmark of what a truly exceptional soundbar should deliver.