Samsung HW-Q67CB Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q67CB is made of plastic, with metal grilles covering the top and the front. The controls are on top, too. It has a similar look to the bar that comes with the Samsung HW-Q910B, with angled edges.

The sub is made of wood. On its front, there's a fabric covering that's rather thin.

The satellites are made of plastic. The front and the sides are covered in a metal grille. They connect to the wireless receiver module using the included speaker wires.

The bar is a bit wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of most 55" TV stands. That said, since it isn't very tall, it doesn't obscure most TV screens.

The sub is a bit smaller than the model that comes with the Samsung HW-Q910B. It's about the size of an average desktop computer.

The satellites are the same size as those that come with the Samsung HW-Q910B. They aren't very big, but you have to wire them to the receiver module to get them to work, which adds some extra wires to your setup.

The Samsung HW-Q67CB has good build quality. The bar and the satellites have a similar design, as they're both made of sturdy plastic with metal grilles to protect the drivers within. The wooden sub feels solid; however, the fabric in the front of the sub is thin and seems like it could collect dust over time.

• User manual
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• 3x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• ACDC adapter for soundbar (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x speaker wire for satellites (13 ft / 3.9m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Wall-mount guide
• 2x wall mount brackets
• 4x wall mount screws

The Samsung HW-Q67CB has a good stereo frequency response. Its sound is quite even and balanced, especially in the mids, meaning that voices and lead instruments in your favorite tunes are reproduced with clarity and accuracy. There's a touch of extra punch in the mid-bass, too. However, fans of bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop will notice the lack of rumble in the low-bass. You can always customize it, though, thanks to the 7-band graphic EQ on hand.

Some users have reported issues where the bar stops working after several hours of use, which you can read about here and here. We had a similar issue during our testing process, where the bar stopped playing audio, even though it registered the file. Unplugging the bar and plugging it back in seemed to fix the issue on our end. However, if you come across something similar, let us know in the discussions below.

If you prefer a more balanced sound with stereo content, you can set the bar's bass to '-2' and the treble to '2'. The resulting output is more even, and there isn't as much extra punch in the mid-bass mixed in. As a result, it's suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content.

With stereo content, the Samsung HW-Q67CB's soundstage is perceived to be a bit wider than the bar itself. Its focus is good, too, so you won't have any trouble following sound effects to their pinpoint locations in the space around you. However, details mixed to come from the far edges are a bit fainter.

The bar gets really loud, so it easily fills larger and more open spaces with sound. As you crank up the volume, though, there's more compression and pumping artifacts added into the mix. If you want a clear and pure audio reproduction, it's best to listen at a more normal volume level.

The Samsung HW-Q67CB has fair stereo THD performance. At normal listening volumes, there's a bit of distortion, and it jumps when you press the bar to max volume. That said, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content. Unless you're an astute audiophile, you won't notice much of a difference in the bar's sound.

The bar's discrete center channel is designed to improve vocal reproduction. Thanks to its even and balanced frequency response, voices are reproduced with clarity and detail in the mix, so you can hear them clearly in movies and TV shows.

The Samsung HW-Q67CB is a good choice for surround sound 5.1 formats like Dolby Digital and DTS. Thanks to its discrete satellites, sound effects are replicated with a clear and real sound in the space around you. Audio seems like it's coming from all around you, rather than just from speakers placed in front of you.

The Samsung HW-Q67CB uses front-firing drivers built into the bar and its satellites to simulate height effects in the space around you. It doesn't sound quite as clear or as real as the experience you get with a traditional home theater system, which uses down-firing drivers in your ceiling to create a true sense of height.

Subjectively, we found that the bar's performance with Atmos content is pleasant overall. It does a good job replicating sound effects in the space around you, especially those that are mixed to come from the left and the right of you. However, it's missing some rumble in the bass, which is especially noticeable in action-packed scenes like car chases. It doesn't simulate height as well as more premium models on the market, either, so drones that are meant to fly over your head seem like they're just coming from the spaces beside you.

The Samsung HW-Q67CB has a decent selection of sound enhancement features. Unlike more premium offerings from the manufacturer, there's no room correction tool, so it sounds a little different depending on the room you listen in. However, you have lots of customization tools to make up for this, including a 7-band graphic EQ that you can access by holding down on the Sound Control button on the remote. There are several presets to choose from, including Surround Sound, Game, Adaptive Sound, and Standard.

Like other Samsung models, the bar offers a feature called Q-Symphony that's advertised to create a more immersive sound when you pair the bar with a compatible Samsung TV. Essentially, this feature uses the bar's speakers in tandem with the speakers built into your TV. In practice, we found it doesn't make a huge difference in the sound quality, though audio can sound a bit louder. Your real-world experience can vary based on your personal preferences, though.

You can connect the bar to your TV over an HDMI connection, and if you have an older TV, it supports Optical, too. Its HDMI In port lets you use the bar as a hub between different devices, like when you want to passthrough high-quality video.

The bar supports many of the audio formats that you're likely to come across with content on streaming platforms and Blu-rays, like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital.

Via HDMI In, the bar supports many different audio formats. You can enjoy 5.1 surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The bar supports many common 5.1 surround sound formats over Optical, including Dolby Digital and DTS. You're likely to come across both on streaming services and Blu-rays.

When you connect the bar to your TV over an ARC or Optical connection, latency is low, so the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see. There aren't any issues with lip-synching, either. We measured higher latency over HDMI In; however, with real-life content, we didn't notice much of a delay over this input. The HDMI In port may be compensating for the delay, which is why the real-world results vary slightly from our measured results. Either way, if you experience any latency issues, you can use the bar's Audio Sync feature to manually adjust the delay based on your preferences.

This soundbar can passthrough some of the highest-quality bandwidth signals, including Dolby Vision Passthrough. When connected between devices like a TV and a PC, text on the screen is clear and crisp.

You can stream audio from your phone or other mobile devices to the bar wirelessly over Bluetooth.

There's a small display screen beneath the metal grille. It only shows a few characters at a time, so you have to wait for it to scroll through longer messages. Still, it's a handy way to see which input you're on and the other settings you change.

The top has a few buttons to control the bar. You can turn it on/off, adjust the volume, and switch to a different input source.

The remote is simple and lets you control all the bar's settings. That said, since it isn't a universal remote, you can't use it to control your TV.

While Samsung's US website says that the bar supports Alexa, we found no information to support this claim in the manual. Since the bar doesn't support Wi-Fi, it doesn't have any voice assistant capabilities. We suspect this is an error on the manufacturer's website.