When you invest in a top of the line new TV, like Samsung’s 8K QLED Q900R, you need to consider the audio too. Yes, TVs have internal speakers, but they’re just not built to handle all the sound details that come along with high resolution video. I’ve been reviewing an 8K Samsung TV in my home over the last month, and to go along with it, I tested out the Samsung Harman Kardon Soundbar with Dolby Atmos, model HW-Q70R. Yes, Samsung partnered with audio tech masters Harman Kardon on this rig, wisely letting each company focus on what it does best.
In this blog we’ll take a look at what this sound bar can do and its special features, how it sounds, how to get it set up, and whether it’s a good match for your 4K or 8K TV.
By the way, if you want to read more about that Samsung 8K QLED Q900R, the full review is here too.
Set up: Samsung Harman Kardon Soundbar
Getting this sound bar set up is super easy, since I’m using it with exactly the TV it’s designed to be used with. Here I’m connecting it to the Samsung TV’s One Connect Box, which connects to the TV with a slim nearly invisible cable, and lets you plug in everything else you want out of the way of the TV so there’s no cord clutter.
Plug your HDMI cable into the HDMI Out (TV ARC) port on the sound bar, then connect it to the HDMI ARC port on the One Connect Box, and power up.
All about Samsung Harman Kardon Sound Bar
The Samsung Harman Kardon Soundbar with Dolby Atmos, HW-Q70R is a 3.1.2 channel sound bar with 330W of power, a built in dedicated centre speaker channel designed for clearer dialogue, and it comes with a wireless subwoofer.
It’s compatible with all the newest audio technology, like Dolby Atmos (more on that in a moment) as well as DTS:X. It can be connected to a full surround sound set up and it’s got 4K pass-through built in, which means connecting 4K video sources like your game console is easy and seamless. It also works with HDR 10 sources.
Sound quality: Samsung Harman Kardon Soundbar
The key feature that drives the sound quality of this device is Dolby Atmos technology.
What is Dolby Atmos?
When you have a 5.1 or 7.1 channel home theatre sound system, you create the illusion of 3D sound by pushing specific audio to specific speakers. With Atmos, instead of pushing sound to a particular speaker, it’s pushed to a particular spot in 3D space in your room, sometimes by more than one speaker. Atmos often uses overhead speakers to achieve this effect precisely, but with a sound bar, you don’t have that. Instead there are upward firing speakers built into the sound bar, and those help push that sound up, over and around you.
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