Samsung HW-A650  Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-A650 has a similar design to the Samsung HW-T650. The top and the front are covered by a metal grille, and the rest of the bar is plastic.

The sub is mostly made of wood. The port is located in the rear, and there's a fabric covering the front.

The Samsung HW-A650 doesn't come with any satellites. However, it's compatible with Samsung's Wireless Surround Kit, so you can add on surround speakers if you purchase them separately.

The Samsung HW-A650 is pretty wide, so it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV. That said, it also isn't very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen unless it sits flush on the table.

The Samsung HW-A650's sub is about the size of an average desktop PC. It connects to the bar wirelessly, so you can place it anywhere in your room.

The Samsung HW-A650 has an impressive build quality. The bar itself has a metal grille covering the top and the front, which helps to protect the drivers. The rest of the bar is made of plastic, which feels quite solid and durable. The sub is mostly made of wood, but unfortunately, the fabric covering on the front seems like it could rip or get dirty easily.

• User Manual
• Remote with batteries (2xAA)
• Mounting brackets screws and template
• Adapter for bar (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Optical cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung HW-A650 has a very good stereo frequency response. Out-of-the-box, it has a pretty neutral, balanced sound profile that's suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. However, it struggles to reproduce a deep low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music like EDM or action-packed movie scenes. Fortunately, there are sound customization features available, including a graphic EQ and presets and bass and treble adjustments.

With calibration, this soundbar has a very good stereo frequency response. With the Bass set to '-1' and the Treble set to '+2', it has a very neutral, balanced sound profile suitable for listening to a wide range of audio content. However, it still struggles to reproduce low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump in genres like EDM and hip-hop.

The Samsung HW-A650 has a decent stereo soundstage. The soundstage is perceived to be about as wide as the bar itself, which isn't as wide as the Samsung HW-T650. The bar doesn't have any tricks to make it sound wider than that, though. That said, it has good focus. Objects in the soundstage, like voices and footsteps, aren't as easy to follow, but they still seem to come from a pretty accurate location.

The Samsung HW-A650 has a very good stereo dynamics performance. It gets pretty loud, so it's suitable for use at crowded parties and in large rooms. When you play it at max volume, there aren't many compression or pumping artifacts present, which is nice.

The Samsung HW-A650 has a decent stereo THD performance. At normal listening volumes, it falls within good limits, resulting in a clean and pure audio reproduction. When you play the bar at max volume, there's a noticeable jump in THD. However, this may not be audible with real-life content.

The Samsung HW-A650 has an impressive center channel performance. Unlike the Samsung HW-A450, this 3.1 setup has a dedicated center channel, so dialogue is reproduced more clearly and accurately. While the frequency response is a bit bass-heavy, it shouldn't be too noticeable since there typically isn't a lot of bass reproduced on the center channel. The mid-range is also balanced, resulting in clear and detailed vocals. However, the center channel doesn't get very loud, which can be disappointing for listeners who want to listen to audio in large rooms.

The Samsung HW-A650 has poor surround performance. It has to downmix surround content into stereo using its left and right speakers, so objects like voices and footsteps aren't as clearly or accurately represented in the soundstage as they would be with discrete localization. As a result, audio may seem like it's coming from in front of you, rather than from speakers placed all around you.

The Samsung HW-A650 has a fair selection of sound enhancement features. There's a graphic EQ to help you customize its sound, as well as some EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Surround Sound', 'Bass Boost', 'Game', 'Adaptive Sound Lite', and 'DTS Virtual X'. The 'Adaptive Sound Lite' mode can enhance audio like dialogue by making voices sound more clear and crisp. The 'Game' preset is advertised to adjust your audio settings to improve directionality so you can keep track of sound cues in your games. You can also turn its auto-volume mode on or off by holding the SOUND MODE button on the remote while the bar is turned off, and if you add on rear speakers, you can adjust their levels.

The Samsung HW-A650 has several physical inputs. There's a Full HDMI In port, which lets you use the bar as a hub between different devices. However, it doesn't have an AUX port, so you can't wire older devices like smartphones to the bar to play audio.

The Samsung HW-A650 supports both Dolby Digital and DTS content via ARC, commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms. However, it doesn't support object-based surround formats like Dolby Atmos.

Update 04/20/2021: After adjusting our setup, we were able to confirm that this soundbar does support DTS content via Full HDMI In.

The Samsung HW-A650 has decent audio format support via Full HDMI In. It can playback Dolby Digital and DTS content, which are commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

Via Optical, the bar can play Dolby Digital and DTS content, which are commonly found on Blu-ray discs and streaming platforms.

The Samsung HW-A650 has a decent latency performance. Its latency is a bit high via ARC, Optical, and Full HDMI In, so your video and audio may be out of sync. As a result, it may not be suitable for watching videos. That said, some apps and some TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

You can wirelessly connect the Samsung HW-A650 to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, so you can play audio from these devices without needing a wired connection. However, you can't wirelessly playback audio via Wi-Fi, Chromecast built-in, or Apple AirPlay.

The Samsung HW-A650 can't passthrough the highest bandwidth signals like Dolby Vision Passthrough, which can be disappointing if you want to use it as a hub between your TV and your PC to play video games. At most, it can passthrough 4k @ 4:4:4 30Hz.

There's a small display on the right side of the bar behind the metal grille. It indicates the volume level and the current input. Since it's only a four-character display, you may need to wait to let it scroll through longer words.

On the top of the bar, there are four physical buttons that let you power the bar on/off, adjust the volume, and switch the input source.

The remote is quite simple, and it can control all of the bar's settings. That said, it isn't a universal remote, so you can't use it to control your TV. The manufacturer says that it's compatible with some Samsung TVs, but we don't test for this.