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- 21010
Unexpected behavior: Atmos speakers in two models of samsung soundbars are activating without receiving signal whenever a signal is sent to wireless rear speakers. The problem reduces the enjoyment of the sound bars Could you please look into the issue and let me know your result?
The atmos speakers that are located in the sound bars themselves are making sound that is supposed to be coming only from the rear speakers. This means the surround experience is greatly diminished because sounds that are supposed to be from behind the audience only are unexpectedly coming from the front as well as the back.
The work-around or temporary fix is to disable Atmos by, for example, disabling it using the settings of the Apple TVs. Without the atmos signal and associated processing error, then only the rear speakers activate when action in the movie is supposed to be behind the audience and the surround experience is better. Then the problem of unexpected sound from the atmos speakers goes away and the surround experience is much more enjoyable.
The error is repeatable on samsung q850a and samsung hw-n950. Notably, this error did not occur on a different brand of sound bar: the error did not occur on an LG MODEL NO. SKC9 soundbar. This gives me confidence that the error is not from a bad signal but it instead from the Samsung sound bars exclusively.
The sound test files i used are the 7 1 4 and 5.1.2 files from Dolby’s website (https://download.dolby.com/us/en/test-tones/dolby-test-tones_7_1_4.mp4) (https://download.dolby.com/us/en/test-tones/dolby-test-tones_5_1_2.mp4). The errors also occurred using the apple tv version of this app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/surround-speaker-check/id1052439918.
Edited 1 year ago: To add more details about the issue. - 21010
Hi nukeroth, We unfortunately no longer have this model to verify the issue. However, many brands and models showcase this behavior. Most of the time it is to “enhance” the soundstage but not always to good effect. As you mentioned, using a different sound mode may be a workaround. We now check for this behavior on new reviews but were not doing so back when this model was reviewed.