IS YOUR SOUNDBAR FAKING IT?

All hail the modern soundbar, which has saved a million homes from the perils of trailing wires and speakers all round the room, as epitomised by the home theatre surround systems of the 1980s and 1990s. The all-conquering soundbar arrived, offering one neat long speaker enclosure beneath your TV to replace a whole room of equipment. It was neat. With the additional of a wireless subwoofer it could sound huge. What was not to like?

But could the soundbar really do surround sound? In the early days, when replacing those multiple speakers, some daft claims were made, invariably involving the word ‘virtual’. As soundbars have developed further over the years, fierce competition among brands has led to more spurious claims for soundbars than perhaps any other line of product. ‘Virtual surround’ is the common claim; ‘virtual’ meaning ‘almost’, ‘nearly’, but not really: a surround effect created by software processing that tries to fool the brain into believing sound is coming from speakers that don’t physically exist.

Does it work? Almost universally the answer is no, or not much, while the processing used to attempt the feat can be highly destructive to the sound quality.

Sound+Image magazine has heard hundreds of soundbars, from budget to extreme, and never has virtual surround truly seemed to come from behind.

11.1.4 channels — 11 on the floor and four more for Atmos and DTS:X height. Impossible, surely? Yet Samsung’s claim is genuine...

HOW MANY DRIVERS?

So how do you know if a soundbar is faking it? The simple answer is to count the drivers, and check how the power ratings are described. A great many soundbars operate in stereo, or 2.1 with a subwoofer, or 3.1 with an additional centre channel to support dialogue. The specifications often list two or three channels of power, two or three sets of drivers. Yet we’ve seen stereo soundbars claim to deliver 5.1.2-channel sound — that’s full surround sound plus height. It’s nonsense! It’s ‘virtual’. Sometimes these can be very nice-sounding bars, but their marketers feel obliged to make outrageous claims in order to outflank their competitors.

One soundbar system which initially appears to make outrageous claims is Samsung’s latest HW-Q950A. It is said to deliver 11.1.4 channels — that’s 11 audio channels on the floor and four more delivering height information for Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. Impossible, surely? Yet Samsung’s claim is genuine. Every channel gets its own driver, its own signal, and its own power. For once, this is a soundbar which is not faking it.

SAMSUNG Q-SERIES SOUNDBAR SYSTEM

Samsung’s main trick to achieve this true immersion is obvious — the Q950A comes with not only a wireless subwoofer but also two wireless rear speakers. Each rear speaker has three drivers, delivering rear surround forward, plus wide surround to the side, and rear height channels from an angled upward-firing driver on the top of each unit. So that’s real surround, and real height from the upward-firing drivers.

Meanwhile the bar at the front has three channels facing forward, four shooting from the sides, and two more height speakers on top. So 15 channels of sound in all, as advertised, plus the supportive 0.1 from the wireless subwoofer.

That’s more than enough to support genuine Dolby Atmos delivery. Again, lesser soundbars often claim “Atmoscompatibility” without attempting the height information which differentiates Atmos from lesser Dolby formats.

‘Compatibility’ does not mean delivery — but on Samsung’s 11.1.4 Q950A soundbar, it most certainly does, and DTS:X too. In addition to the additional channel count, Samsung has enhanced the latest Q95A’s connectivity, and added new features. With HDMI eARC, the soundbar can now receive surround sound down the HDMI connection to your TV, getting the best Atmos and other multichannel soundtracks from TV apps such as Netflix, Disney+ and Stan. There is SpaceFit Sound, which assesses your room and optimises sound levels accordingly. The Q950A supports multiple voice assistants, including Alexa and Bixby. And if used with some Samsung TVs — including the latest Neo QLED models — the soundbar can activate ‘Q Symphony’, making use of the TV’s speakers as well as its own.

Samsung’s soundbar also doubles up as a music machine, with AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth onboard so you can easily stream music from your device of choice. As for the sound quality, this soundbar builds on the successful formula developed by the team at Samsung’s Audio Lab in California, whose previous soundbars have won multiple Sound+Image Awards, among many others. The Q950A offers a premium soundbar solution, and at a time when we’re spending more and more time at home, it’s surely worth redirecting those unused holiday funds to invest in a truly immersive performance level that delivers cinema and concert experiences right there in your living room.

So when considering a soundbar, learn to spot the fakes, and avoid the ‘virtual’. There’s no shortcut to a truly immersive experience, no substitute for physical rear speakers, for separate channels, for genuine drivers. And Samsung’s Q950A is loaded with them.