Samsung Series 9 HW-N950

An OK soundbar – This soundbar has a very good base and surrounds sound is fantastic. People's voice is very clear. But the two side speakers are not loud enough. Sound from side speakers can suddenly become very loud. Show details ·  1

Non Existent sound from Rear Speakers – Soundbar on its own is good but Bass is not as good as some other soundbars. Its very mild even on a high level. Rear speakers are non-existent. it just gives very low to no sound. I will advise to spend some more money and get Bose or other brand as Samsung has lost its credibility in soundbar. Support is non existent as well. Waste of money. Show details

Rear speakers don't work – Rear speakers don't work interesting that confirmed its a problem with Blue tooth and to return the product. Very disappointing lot of effort for an expensive product. Would suggest another brand be considered Show details

Excellent ATMOS soundbar but weak bass – I bought this soundbar paying a premium price and expecting premium results. I wasn't disappointed for the most part except when it comes to playing music or movies with strong sound effects. Its bass it not as strong as some of the competition. As many others have also pointed, rear speakers produce so less sound, they might as well not be there. Show details ·  1

Soundbar is ok, when it worked for a week 3 months ago. Still waiting on Samsung support – I had this soundbar working for about one week when the transmitter to the external speakers broke. Based on that one week the quality was good and I enjoyed the Dolby Atmos. It was the start of a so far three month nightmare however. The replacement soundbar was broken out of the box. I again contacted Samsung support and all these months later I… Read more

am still waiting for another replacement. So far they have only "offered" a repair, which took them one month to communicate to me and cited it as the "quickest" solution. Each step of the process has been time-consuming, frustrating and stressful. I have now requested a full refund, as I could not enjoy the Samsung label anymore. I presume this will take some time to complete and Consumer Affairs will have to be engaged to provide a little encouragement to Samsung, whilst I continue waiting for something better than TV speakers. I cannot recommend this soundbar. Overpriced for clearly low quality components backed up with extremely poor customer support.

The best Soundbar Samsung Hartman/Kardon 7.1.4 – Hi I bought this Samsung Hartman/Kordon 9 Series HW-N950 it is the best Soundbar to put with an 82 inches Samsung Series 8 premium led lcd smart tv. The sound quality seems like cinema. This system beautifully crafted. The rear speakers are wireless and Bluetooth connected. The base module is also wireless and Bluetooth. So as whole this system produces the sound quality you can feel.  Show details

Terrible default sound, no auto EQ, became faulty in weeks, support agents shockingly incompetent! – Before the sound bar became faulty after only a couple of weeks, Atmos content was indeed working with Apple TV 4K (after OS update) and from a Blu-ray player. Default settings sounded TERRIBLE with horribly excessive low frequency bass, weak and unclear male vocals that sound like they are inside a cardboard box. Subwoofer EQ is a bell curve,… Read more

exaggerated in the middle of its range, and not seamlessly blending with the bottom end of the main speaker frequency range. Even at -6 or -12 (max) certain frequencies sound excessively boomy, other frequencies inadequate. I even did a subwoofer crawl for optimal room placement, and still can't get as good low frequency sound as my previous subwoofer. Note that there are currently no compatible subwoofer upgrade products available for this sound bar. Some low frequency effects such as explosions are powerful, but exaggerated.

There is no auto room EQ or speaker distance calibration microphone. Manual EQ setting is awkwardly possible using the hidden remote features if you read the full user guide (not included), but is a global setting not individual channels. After hours of research and fiddling, I achieved significantly better sound by manual EQ band adjustment. However side and upward firing speakers should have independent EQ, depending to compensate for wall/ceiling texture, distance, etc.

There is no speaker distance calibration setting, forcing a specific, symmetrical speaker placement.

The overhead height effects of this sound bar were disappointingly underwhelming. Overhead and height effects are barely noticeable unless you boost those channels to near maximum volume, which adversely affects EQ and channel volume balance.

I diagnose technical faults for a living.

When HDMI 2 and recently also HDMI 1 inputs became faulty (no sound or video), by a thorough process of elimination I ruled out cables, TV, or devices as the cause. Multiple Samsung support consultants insisted that I was connecting it incorrectly, despite the instructions and diagram in their user guide, and the fact it has been working for weeks.

Samsung support refused to believe that their sound bar can pass video through to the TV, repeatedly and condescendingly insisting that “the sound bar is only a speaker for sound“!

Note that Audio Return Channel (ARC) from any TV does not support lossless Atmos audio, which is the main feature of this product. ARC downmixes to lossy, compressed stereo PCM audio from the TV, which is not a suitable solution except perhaps for free to air TV audio from the TV. Also, Atmos is not supported via optical cable either.

Even so, support INSISTED that ALL video devices must connect directly to TV input for video, using ARC audio out to the sound bar. They implied my TV or other non-Samsung devices are to blame by repeatedly asking whether my TV or Blu-ray player is Samsung, followed by “have you tried a different TV?” There is no chance I will buy more of their products after this experience!

After several hours of useless troubleshooting, they eventually referred me to a service centre to inspect for a “suspected” fault, and warned I will be charged a fee because the sound bar is not actually faulty, I am using it wrong.

My condolences to anyone who has issues and needs support!

If you want to use it with Apple TV (or other third party devices) don’t buy it – When it works it sounds great. It has a major flaw though, it doesn’t recognise the latest Apple TV. It worked ok, but then stopped recognising it the next day after it had been turned off. Multiple cycling through doesn’t work. Apple TV works fine directly on the TV. Doesn’t work great with the Foxtel box either. Works fine with Samsung DVD… Read more

player and the Samsung TV it’s plugged in to....

Research online suggests there are multiple people with this issue, and Samsung won’t do anything about it. I’ve contacted Samsung support, and they were useless - if it works with their DVD player then there is nothing wrong with it apparently. It could be solved with a firmware update!!! At the moment it’s not fit for purpose, so would not recommend buying it!

Online forum below with the issue I’m having:

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Home-Theater-Home-Audio/HW-N950-wont-display-Apple-TV-4K/td-p/400079

I have now returned the soundbar as it just does not work with anything other than the Samsung DVD player. Highly recommend avoiding this soundbar until Samsung address the issue as it’s just not fit for purpose.

Pricey... but worth every cent – Never owned a soundbar before because I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to sound quality. I bought this on the basis of some positive reviews. It’s fantastic, and I couldn’t be happier. I recommended it to a mate who is now going to buy one. TV and movies are amazing and reproduction is so good I generally don’t bother with my hifi for music… Read more

any more. This does a really great job. RRP is about $2k but the big stores are offering it for about $1.8k. Not cheap, but i ‘m happy.