Samsung HW-Q950T and HW-Q900T Soundbar - Review & Comments

I will be calling tomorrow as I brought mine before the 16/9/20 and certainly feel entitled to the offer.
Just out of interest. If you bought it before the offer started, why do you feel you’re entitled to it? Offers come and go and you’re really only entitled to it, if bought during the promotional period. I understand it’s frustrating when these offers come out but that’s the price to pay for being an early adopter.
 
Just out of interest. If you bought it before the offer started, why do you feel you’re entitled to it? Offers come and go and you’re really only entitled to it, if bought during the promotional period. I understand it’s frustrating when these offers come out but that’s the price to pay for being an early adopter.
Because I brought it specifically due to the 28 day satisfaction guarantee.
I'm using one policy to take advantage of a deal that has arisen during the 28 days.
£400 is money I have paid that can be refunded without much effort on my part.

If my boss said I could work for half day for £400 then I'd be right there, so why not take advantage now?
 
Because I brought it specifically due to the 28 day satisfaction guarantee.
I'm using one policy to take advantage of a deal that has arisen during the 28 days.
£400 is money I have paid that can be refunded without much effort on my part.

If my boss said I could work for half day for £400 then I'd be right there, so why not take advantage now?

So you are returning current one and gettin s new one at discounted price? If correct that would.make total sense.
 
So after 25% discount, this works out to £1,200 which is good UK price for a bar that appears to have be best sound quality amongst current sounfbars.
 
Hey all!
wish I found this forum a couple hours ago! Lol i bought the Samsung hwq90r. Things sounds amazing coming from an older Samsung sound bar. I am in the return period for this soundbar and the only gripe I’m having is the rear speakers. For those with the 950T who upgraded from the q90r, are the rear speakers louder than the q90r? Is there a possibility of another firmware update to increase the sound? Thanks!!
 
Not Atmos, but the sound design of that recent war flick "The Outpost" is insanely good! (i rewatched it today, sorry if I mentioned this here before). The third act is so intense! Bullets and debris everywhere. Great film also. The Q950T handled the sound beautifully with a punchy and wide spectrum. Highly recommend.
 
Not Atmos, but the sound design of that recent war flick "The Outpost" is insanely good! (i rewatched it today, sorry if I mentioned this here before). The third act is so intense! Bullets and debris everywhere. Great film alo. The Q950T handled the sound beautifully with a punchy and wide spectrum. Highly recommend.
I'm gonna rewatch that 3rd act again tonight on the JBL 9.1 for comparison while it's fresh in my head.
 
Yes that's exactly what I'm doing.

At what date did you purchase the soundbar?
I’m doing the same as you but I thought you purchased it a little longer than a month ago!
Never mind, was someone else who bought it at 6th august!
 
Last edited:
So far, in terms of audio quality and atmos effect, which do you like better? Does the 9.1 matter compared to say 5.1 channels, significantly?
That's an interesting question that I'm still investigating and plan on reporting back once I have enough info, maybe even this weekend as I've had the Q950T for over a month now and the JBL for two weeks. So far, very, very comparable and both impressive in sound although with numerous differences in the way they operate. The Q950T is in my main living room so I only spend time with the JBL on the weekends when my wife goes to bed and I'm still awake like an idiot 😂. I'll write something up here as soon as I have a good idea of how to compare.
 
Last edited:
Hey all!
wish I found this forum a couple hours ago! Lol i bought the Samsung hwq90r. Things sounds amazing coming from an older Samsung sound bar. I am in the return period for this soundbar and the only gripe I’m having is the rear speakers. For those with the 950T who upgraded from the q90r, are the rear speakers louder than the q90r? Is there a possibility of another firmware update to increase the sound? Thanks!!

Keep the Q90R. I have both, and the Q90R works much better. Also doesn't have the horrible fabric wrap.
 
Alright - Q950T vs JBL 9,1 FIGHT! - no! Shake hands.

I want to preface this that I am coming at these from a consumer standpoint. I know audio, mostly from a music background of running analogue studios but I got really sick of dealing with it. I've owned these two, the LGSN11RG and the Vizio SB46514-f6 for reference. I will not be touching on detailed audio or other specs that have been discussed and questioned in the thread already. This is a straight up listeners comparison so here we go!

Q950T is set up in my living room, 2 walls - front and right - behind is an open stairwell with a wall approx. 15' ft from the bar, to the left is open concept area to dining room and kitchen approx 12 ' to the wall, 9' flat ceiling, open concept area on my left hand side

JBL 9.1 is set up in my basement, 3 walls - front, right, behind, equal, approx 9' x 12' area. Left is open to the rest of the room, approx 12 ft. from the bars' listening space.

Settings:

Besides the way the rears work and the aesthetic, this is the absolute biggest difference between the two. While the Q950T has numerous settings, including different volumes for sets of speakers, sub, EQ freq. adjustments and sound modes the JBL is streamlined (albeit really slick about it) with Atmos, Bass and Rear levels on the remote having the user set them to only Low-Med-High. Edit: forgot to mention that the sub has a level of 1-5 with 3 being the default. That's it...and it's a noticeable difference for each settings and glorious that you can hear that difference and don't have to think much about which you like better. Choose 1 of the 3 that sounds best and move on. Awesome.

Atmos:
Comparable and great!!
Both units handle the upfiring Atmos beautifully. The clarity, height level and effect are both on par with each other. I watched Ready Player One chase scene, Midway opening battle and Blair Witch (2016) and barely noticed a difference. Both produced strong overhead and bubble Atmos. Maybe a slight edge to the JBL for tightness, but Q950 for wideness. Ugh, it's even.

5.1 vs 7.1 vs 9.1:
Again, comparable but the Q gets the nod for a more widespread effect, which makes sense, the bar is "wider". Still, in watching "The Outpost" (2019) (which sound design I love) I noticed very little difference between bars, maybe a SLIGHT edge to the Q but again, cause it's a larger bar and wides and sides levels have been turned up. Can't go wrong either way.

Quality:
Both fine. These reviewers talking about the "cloth" finish of the Q950T or whatever are bored and have nothing to talk about. Both are great looking and not even something that needs to be discussed...not only from me but from any reviewer because taste is subjective so who cares?

Ease of use/remore/settings:
They are both easy to use. Both have "hidden button menus" which is so dumb. Why do these companies make them "hidden"?! WTF?! Like, your hidden menu button is EXACTLY what I needed to fix my system but, no, you had to hide it and say it was hidden in the friggen manual which is also "hidden" on your website. Ugh. And....Samsung - get your Smart Things App right for Android 11 cause I can't access the Q950T. Still, Samsung wins in the non-hidden manual dept (JBL's is so ridiculous, I won't even go into it) BUT JBL wins in ease of use HANDS DOWN and the reason why is:

LIMITED OPTIONS. When I used to mix and produce music I never wanted too much. The easiest way to make something sound great or create with was to have a limited amount of options. I LOVE that JBL sounds amazing right out of the box and when you go to calibrate it's about 3 minutes and then you look at the options for speaker settings and it's like "Here's what you got, deal with it."

set-up:
Very similar, took the same time for both. Nothing really to say here except for the JBL - make sure to charge the speakers immediately before completely setting up. Maybe wait about 3 hours. I experienced zero issues with setting these both up.

So, this brings me to the biggest difference in the two (and for any others for that matter) the JBL wireless rears which connect to the bar to charge. I'm happy to say that so far I haven't even ended up below 50% battery life on the rears and that's even from last week watching football from 1 PM EST - 9:45 PM EST. What's cool is you can place them wherever in your room and not have to worry about mounting or stands. They can also be charged via micro USB if you wish. I personally LOVE this aspect of this bar.

Sub - Both pack a huge punch. The Q950T at 15 vol rumbles and at 25 or 30 shakes the hell out the room! That is with bass set to 2 and sub set to 2! Man, it cranks. JBL is super tight sounding as well! I don't even know if I can compare bass levels....hmmmm...nah, both sound great. One odd thing I've noticed- if the volume on the JBL bar is below 4, the sub completely cuts out 100%. It's very weird but it legit just cuts off. Which is fine but vol 3 still isn't as low as I would want to fall asleep too with a little low end and it's non existent at that level.

I think I can say the bass feels tighter on the JBL but maybe a little more powerful on the Q950T

So, to conclude - Surprisingly (to me even!) , I slightly prefer the JBL due to it's simplicity, no hassle ease of use, price point and comparable sound. It's perfect for a smaller space, has an easy remote, limited options for tweaking sound and you can place the rears wherever you want. If you have a very large room and listening area I would recommend the Q950T instead mainly due to the size of the bar and the added ability to adjust and tweak the sound if need be

Note: I want to swap the locations of my JBL and Q950T to see if there is any difference. I quite like my set-up at the moment though so not sure if I'll do it anytime soon.

Cheers all!
 
Last edited:
Thanks, @Chaybee1 so I guess I'll stick with Q950T for my living room! For my smaller room, I will certainly keep JBL as an option (while I wait for Klipsch) to replace my Nakamichi (hopefully some good deals in November?)...Considering the significant price difference though, I wish Samsung offered more bang for the buck!
 
Thanks, @Chaybee1 so I guess I'll stick with Q950T for my living room! For my smaller room, I will certainly keep JBL as an option (while I wait for Klipsch) to replace my Nakamichi (hopefully some good deals in November?)...Considering the significant price difference though, I wish Samsung offered more bang for the buck!
I think I agree. The longevity and firmware updates are always a factor. I also forgot to mention that the JBL has one hdmi input compared to the 2x Q950T. Had I had faith in the JBL brand beforehand I would have probably just opted for two of these given the pricepoint but, still, I'm happy to own both at the moment.
 
I think I agree. The longevity and firmware updates are always a factor. I also forgot to mention that the JBL has one hdmi input compared to the 2x Q950T. Had I had faith in the JBL brand beforehand I would have probably just opted for two of these given the pricepoint but, still, I'm happy to own both at the moment.

Well the heavenly voice from Samsung tech support made a prophecy that a firmware update is coming (of course, she had no idea of any other details), so hopefully good days are coming :D

I do not know about JBL, but Samsung pretty much ignores the previous soundbar once the next model comes out, which is almost every year! My 2019 8K TV was promised eARC last winter, and we are still waiting. They pretty much abandon older models. So, I guess we have time till the next model comes out.
 
@Chaybee1 Great comparison, thanks. As a JBL owner it made me smile. In regards to the bass cutting out below volume 4, that's been changed/fixed in a recent update.
 
@Chaybee1 Great comparison, thanks. As a JBL owner it made me smile. In regards to the bass cutting out below volume 4, that's been changed/fixed in a recent update.
Thanks man! As for the sub cutting out at below 4 - my bar shows it's the latest update. How do I change this?
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom