Samsung HW-N950 Soundbar Review & Comments

To update on my silly situation.

I went and got an AppleTV4K. I now get Atmos on Netflix and iTunes etc on Apple TV.

So far, I have had no problems. The issues I had with lip-sync that were present with my old Denon seem to have disappeared (both with match frame-rate on and off.) The HDMI-CEC works pretty much flawlessly, and the remotes work as intended, meaning 99% of the time I’m just using my tv remote or my Apple TV remote. The TV sound coming through the optical port also works brilliantly.

I am extremely happy with it. I would never consider myself an audiophile, although I appreciate good sound. I am quite sure I could spend double the money, and even more, and get something better (a true wired Atmos system.)

But it really sounds amazing.

I appreciate the clarity and variety of the sound. The soundstage is clear, when people are talking in different parts of the screen it really feels anchored to where the sound is coming from.

The rear speakers are great; there is often lots of colour and effect coming from them, without it feeling “obvious.”

The upward firing thing seems to work decently. Watching “Bird Box” on Netflix there were a few moments when sound clearly seemed to be coming from above, from gentle bird noises to loud thumps. I have no doubt all this could be tweaked further to be better and more accurate, and maybe I’ll play with it over time, but it is damn impressive for just unpacking it, plonking it in front of the telly and turning it on.

The other thing I appreciate is dialogue. It is clear, always clear, no matter how softly whispered, or how much dramatic music and sound is going on; but it doesn’t feel tiring on my ears (I’ve experienced that in some badly set up cinemas where you feel assaulted by the centre channel.)

Best of all is it’s low volume performance. I have never used a system before where you can turn the volume so low, and yet still have clarity on every word spoken. It really is brilliant.

I have no idea what people seem to complain about that the subwoofer doesn’t work - it is certainly working, in Atmos content of course, but also impressive in 5.1 content, and in normal TV sound coming over Optical, everything is nicely fleshed out by the woofer. Music too is really great to listen to (via Apple Music on aTV, haven’t tried Bluetooth), vivid and colourful, and fleshed outs with the rears.

Aside from my idiocy with the Apple TV and getting true Atmos working, the rest of it has been set-and-forget. I haven’t even dared try the “surround/smart/standard” buttons in case it ruins what is happening automatically!!

For £750 I think I have gotten a damn good piece of machinery at a very good price.
Great review / impressions, I can’t wait to get mind setup, hopefully everything will be ready by March 1st :)
 
To update on my silly situation.

I went and got an AppleTV4K. I now get Atmos on Netflix and iTunes etc on Apple TV.

So far, I have had no problems. The issues I had with lip-sync that were present with my old Denon seem to have disappeared (both with match frame-rate on and off.) The HDMI-CEC works pretty much flawlessly, and the remotes work as intended, meaning 99% of the time I’m just using my tv remote or my Apple TV remote. The TV sound coming through the optical port also works brilliantly.

I am extremely happy with it. I would never consider myself an audiophile, although I appreciate good sound. I am quite sure I could spend double the money, and even more, and get something better (a true wired Atmos system.)

But it really sounds amazing.

I appreciate the clarity and variety of the sound. The soundstage is clear, when people are talking in different parts of the screen it really feels anchored to where the sound is coming from.

The rear speakers are great; there is often lots of colour and effect coming from them, without it feeling “obvious.”

The upward firing thing seems to work decently. Watching “Bird Box” on Netflix there were a few moments when sound clearly seemed to be coming from above, from gentle bird noises to loud thumps. I have no doubt all this could be tweaked further to be better and more accurate, and maybe I’ll play with it over time, but it is damn impressive for just unpacking it, plonking it in front of the telly and turning it on.

The other thing I appreciate is dialogue. It is clear, always clear, no matter how softly whispered, or how much dramatic music and sound is going on; but it doesn’t feel tiring on my ears (I’ve experienced that in some badly set up cinemas where you feel assaulted by the centre channel.)

Best of all is it’s low volume performance. I have never used a system before where you can turn the volume so low, and yet still have clarity on every word spoken. It really is brilliant.

I have no idea what people seem to complain about that the subwoofer doesn’t work - it is certainly working, in Atmos content of course, but also impressive in 5.1 content, and in normal TV sound coming over Optical, everything is nicely fleshed out by the woofer. Music too is really great to listen to (via Apple Music on aTV, haven’t tried Bluetooth), vivid and colourful, and fleshed outs with the rears.

Aside from my idiocy with the Apple TV and getting true Atmos working, the rest of it has been set-and-forget. I haven’t even dared try the “surround/smart/standard” buttons in case it ruins what is happening automatically!!

For £750 I think I have gotten a damn good piece of machinery at a very good price.

good to hear that you are getting on well with it. I would say I have very similar experience as you as well...in the main i'm now using the Apple TV4 k and it works well..I just use the apple remote. Apart from the volume of rear speakers being a tad low for me (might just be down to room size), I can't really complain. I do have other issues with my setup, but it's not the N950's fault!!!

thnx.
 
It's a feature request/rumor, its the one thing missing from this bar. Was commented in the thread. I was wondering is Samsung had made any comment on it.
 
You need eARC to get lossless atmos from netflix. Then again tv too need eARC aka hdmi 2.1
 
It's possible, chipset would allow it as DV and HDR10+ passthrough are carried without issue. It's purely a wait and see aspect, Samsung have a terrible history of adding features, look at the 2016 K950 DTS:X support....
 
If you're basing your purchase of the N950 on 'possible' addition of eARC at X date, then don't buy it. Buy it with the features it has currently and anything in the future is a possible bonus.

Firmware updates should be ignored for a few weeks after release until others report on the stability and confirm features are maintained/work as originally purchased. Only then should you update. IMO.
 
Is anyone else enjoying the popcorn
 

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Your kidding right !
It won't let me sign up to the free popcorn offer via the Samsung link...I purchased the N950 soundbar from Currys on Sunday the 6th of Jan.
 
It won't let me sign up to the free popcorn offer via the Samsung link...I purchased the N950 soundbar from Currys on Sunday the 6th of Jan.

You have to wait 30 days from the date of purchase
 
Anyone have a view on how this soundbar would compare to a full 5.1 Sonos setup with the Beam, play 1s and sub? I have Sonos elsewhere in the house so it makes sense from that point of view. I've been amazed at the sound from the beam, but adding the other bits takes the cost over this soundbar.
 
Would N950 compare with previous Samsung HTIB HW-6550 (5.1) and
Samsung - 5 Series 1000W 5.1 Home Theater System Model:HT-J5500
both with 1000 Watts -- as opposed to N950's 512 Watts , and capacity for SEPARATING front R & L speakers 10-12 feet (not fixed ~4 feet apart) ? I realize these are not ATMOS -- I am asking mainly about the difference that twice the wattage would make in loudness and also the physical separation of the front speakers in immersion.
 
I am asking mainly about the difference that twice the wattage would make in loudness and also the physical separation of the front speakers in immersion.

I haven’t experienced the system you mention. Firstly I would imagine it depends on the room and space you are filling. The N950 is plenty loud enough - I’m aware the volume goes up to 50 and possibly beyond, and at 25 it feels very very loud and I’ve never turned it beyond 30 were it feels like a huge cinema sound. Maybe in a bigger space sitting further away you’d turn it up, and maybe in a bigger situation still some extra watts would help, I don’t know.

Regarding separation.... yes? Again it depends where you sit. We’re only a couple of metres from the sound bar (a bit less I think.) The separation it provides is very clear - maybe enhanced by the side-firing speakers, not sure. There is clear movement across the soundstage for dialogue, and effects can seem place quite far across indeeed. Were we sitting further away in a bigger space, maybe it would be less effective simply because of its physical size; of course with separate speakers as you suggest, you can place them as far apart as you need and in a bigger space that might be better.
 
Is this worth bying at present date, or should I wait for something new? (eARC)
Got a few gift certificates I could use to get the price down at around 1100 USD.

Heard some talk about low volume on rear speakers and this 5 min auto shutdown "feature"
which is not possible to disable.

Thoughts?
 
I have no idea if there’s something better about to be released. There always is something better around the corner! As I said, it appears to be a fully functioning, high quality system. The fact that it is about a year old now and appearing and very very good prices means there is surely a new model soon to come, and that the excellent prices will continue. There’s a gamble for you to make - wait for the new one and buy that (at full cost) or buy this one at an even bigger discount. Will the new one have many better features? No idea. If it had Airplay 2 then that would be great (for me.) If eARC is an essential feature for you then you should get something with eARC? I don’t have or needn’t eARC - my TV is old enough it doesn’t have ARC!

Rear speakers seem absolutely fine. I hear them when I need. When something loud happens in the rear of the soundstage, there it is, loud and present. When there is ambient rear soundscapes, there they are, gently filling out the soundscape. When I play music from AppleTV, the rear speakers fill out the sound. I’m not sure what else to say. It appears to work. It’s possible you will have problems, I don’t know. Maybe mine shipped with the newer firmwares. pre-installed and maybe you might buy older stock that still has older dodgy firmware installed? Sorry can’t help.

The switch off thing exists, and there is nothing you can do about it. In my experience, this hasn’t bothered me once, ever. I mean.... if it turns off, you turn it off again. It doesn’t take long. Maybe with certain HDMI-CEC set ups this can prove frustrating? With devices switching themselves on and off again in annoying ways? I don’t know. I just don’t really see this as any sort of deal breaker. Samsung should of course make it adjustable or something, so that people who do find it frustrating can find a way around it. I get that. But in my personal usage, it rarely happens and doesn’t bother me if it does.
 
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As I have understood, HDMI, Optical won't output flawless Atmos to the soundbar, as of yet.
How do I get the true Atmos experience on this soundbar? A bit confused.

Really considering this or the HT-ST5000, or the N860 (850).

I do have room for the rear speakers in my living room, and roughly the budget.

Any issues worth noticing with this soundbar, that I should be aware of?
Are most of you happy owners of this?

It's quite expensive still, just trying to make up my mind.
 
Atoms will come to the speakers via two methods:

1. Connecting an HDMI directly from the source (ie BluRay player/AppleTV/XboxOneS) to the sound bar. (And then another HDMI taking the picture from the soundbar to your TV.)

2. Over HDMI via ARC. That is an HDMI directly from the TV into the soundbar - so if your TV has an inbuilt Netflix app that supports Atmos, it will send Atmos to your soundbar; or you can plug your Blu-Ray player into the TV instead of the soundbar, and the audio will be passed over ARC to the soundbar. The point of HDMI ARC is that it operates both ways: the “output” (soundbar->TV) HDMI port also can operate as an “input” (TV->soundbar), eliminating the need for an optical cable. AND an optical cable does not support enough bandwidth for Atmos. Fine for watching broadcast quality stereo and 5.1 TV, but if you want Atmos it had to be HDMI.

However, ARC support is pretty sketchy - as are all things HDMI (think HDMI-CEC.) Différent manufacturers choose to support or not support different thing. One TV might be able to send DTS Surround via ARC, another might not, same with Atmos. That’s where your research is essential - or at the very least you might try your TV with the soundbar and find it either works or not.

The way that IS guaranteed to work is option 1 described above. Atmos WILL work in this situation (provided your HDMI cables aren’t really crap.) The limitation here is that the Soundbar only has two HDMI inputs, so you can only connect 2 devices. (Unless you get a switcher device of some sort.) But this is becoming standard for most soundbars. I only have two devices so I’m fine.
 

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