Samsung Q930B Soundbar Speaker (2022) - 9.1.4ch Surround Sound System With Alexa Built-In, Dolby Atmos DTS:X, Wireless Subwoofer & Rear Speakers With Spacefit Sound And Night & Voice Enhancer

Product Information

With a premium metal finish and low profile, its acoustic silhouette fits in beautifully with your home entertainment set up (and is an ideal match with a Samsung QLED TV). So while the main soundbar may be smaller than the one you get with the Q990B, its sound actually seems to harmonise and blend brilliantly with the also specially designed rears. This results in a more even, consistent, balanced and generally refined sound stage that you can truly get lost in, rather than some aspects of the system drawing too much attention to themselves by being either over- or under-powered. On the front there is a small display that shows all the settings and source information. Connectivity HW-Q910B This model sits above the HW-Q800B series we told you about and below the HW-Q990B. The problem with the latter is that there is little availability and its price varies quite a bit with respect to this HW-Q930B which is in a much more interesting price range.

Depending on the country you live in, you may find the Q930B or Q910B series, but it’s essentially the same soundbar with the same features.

Plan Benefits

The wireless subwoofer is quite large being 8 inches, but since it does not connect with any cable with the bar, you can place it wherever you want. This subwoofer by emitting the lower frequencies, the human ear is not able to accurately determine the positioning and is perceived as omnidirectional, so you can place it wherever you want, it does not necessarily have to be close to the bar. Hard impact sounds hit with a little more unwanted politeness (rather than lovable brutality) than they do on the Q990B, and while the balance of sound is generally excellent, occasionally really bright trebles can sound a little too prominent. Seemingly because the smaller main soundbar doesn’t have quite as much counterpointing low-end grunt as the Q990B’s. Specific placement effects sound crisp and clear, as if they’re coming from exactly the right place around your room for the most part, making a good movie mix sound as detailed and busy as it is loud. This sense of accurate placement even extends to the Q930B’s dialogue, which is subtly lifted upwards so that it seems to be coming from the mouths of onscreen talkers rather than from the speaker bar beneath the screen.

The Q930B is equipped with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as you would expect, and even lets you connect recent Samsung Galaxy phones to it just by tapping them against the soundbar’s bodywork. The wireless capabilities have been extended, too, for 2022 to include wireless Dolby Atmos streaming from compatible Samsung TVs. Note, though, that the wireless Atmos system supports the compressed DD+ version of Dolby Atmos rather than the ‘lossless’ True HD version of Dolby Atmos you can get via eARC or the HDMI loopthrough.

Performance

There are few aspects that we can criticize or miss. One of them is that it does not offer the ability to pass 4K signal at 120 Hz via HDMI, but is limited to 60 Hz. This should not be a problem for most people since they can connect the console or PC directly to the TV, however in this price range we believe that it could have been added. Another detail, is that in Spain, it does not come with the Alexa voice assistant integrated, something that in other countries it does support. The HW-Q930B features a metallic finish that gives a glimpse of some of the integrated speakers. We found this finish to be much better than the cloth finish that many Samsung models have had in the past. It is much easier to clean and is more durable if you have children at home. The look now has more pronounced polygonal shapes as we see on many Samsung models this year. Listening to the soundbar at very high volumes feels a bit more tiring than listening to the Q990B ever does, too, and finally while the Q930B is an outstanding home cinema performer, with many types of music the previously impressively disciplined subwoofer suddenly goes rogue, routinely drawing too much attention to itself to let you lose yourself in what you’re listening to. The dynamic range of the main soundbar is wide enough to tether its sound nicely to the subwoofer’s low frequencies, and in combination with the system’s impressive amounts of raw power is able to scale the soundstage up when required better than any other soundbar in its class. Converted to Test Bench 1.2. Updated the results for audio format support via ARC/eARC, HDMI In, and Optical. Added Video Passthrough to TV results as well.