Samsung HW-Q990B Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-Q990B has a premium design. It's made of plastic, with metal grilles covering the front, sides, and top of the bar. It feels more solid than the fabric sides on last year's Samsung HW-Q950A. There are also angled edges similar to the Samsung HW-Q930B.

The Samsung HW-Q990B's sub has a unique design. It's mostly made of wood, and on the side, there's a round plastic plate to protect the woofer.

The Samsung HW-Q990B's satellites have a similar design to those that come with the Samsung HW-Q930B. Their build resembles the bar itself, with plastic and metal grilles on the sides. The top and bottom of the satellites have an angled design that's unique compared to last year's models.

The Samsung Q990B is quite wide, especially compared to the Samsung HW-Q930B. It likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV. That said, it's not very tall, so it doesn't obscure your TV screen.

The Samsung HW-Q990B's sub is larger than the version that comes with the Samsung HW-Q930B. It resembles a larger desktop computer. Since it connects to the bar wirelessly, you have more flexibility when arranging it in your room.

The Samsung HW-Q990B's satellites are a similar size to those that come with other top-of-the-line models. You can place them on pedestals or mount them to your wall.

The Samsung Q990B has an excellent build quality. The bar and the satellites have a similar plastic build, with metal grilles to help protect the drivers inside. It feels more much premium than the fabric used in last year's Samsung HW-Q950A. The sub is quite premium-looking, too, with a wood build and a plastic plate on the back. There's plastic covering the woofer, which is more solid than the usual fabric covering.

• User manual
• 4x rubber feet
• Wall-mount template with bar brackets and screws
• Remote with batteries (2x AA)
• 4x power cord (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The Samsung Q990B has an impressive stereo frequency response. Its balanced mids and treble make it suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content, as voice and lead instruments reproduce with clarity and detail. There's plenty of rumble in the bass, especially compared to last year's Samsung HW-Q950A. You feel the thump in the bass, especially with bass-heavy genres like hip-hop and EDM, so it seems less controlled than with next generation's Samsung HW-Q990C.

In addition to a 7-band graphic EQ, you have some EQ presets to help you customize its sound. When listening to music, audio sounds pleasant on 'Standard' mode. However, 'Adaptive Sound' makes audio seem more diffused, almost as if it's been forced through a filter. 'Adaptive' is more suitable for listening to movies, while 'Standard' is better for music and other stereo content.

If you prefer a more neutral sound with stereo content, you can set the Samsung Q990B's bass to '-3' and its treble to '0'. The sound is more balanced, and you notice less boom in the bass range. Voices and lead instruments remain clear and present in the mix, too.

It's worth mentioning that if you're in 'Standard' mode, the EQ preset for treble doesn't affect the frequency response, so if you're using this setting, you'll only be able to change the bar's sound with the bass EQ. That said, you can always take advantage of the 7-band graphic EQ in the app for more robust sound customization.

The Samsung Q990B has a good stereo soundstage performance. It has good focus, meaning that it's easy to pinpoint sound effects to pinpoint locations around you. For example, if you listen to an orchestral recording, each instrument seems to come from a particular spot on stage. On 'Standard' mode, the soundstage is about as wide as the bar itself, but unlike the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 or the Sonos Arc, it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. The soundstage is a little wider on 'Adaptive Sound', but it seems more diffused, and audio is forced towards the back wall. In our view, 'Standard' is the better choice for stereo content overall, but your subjective impressions may vary.

The Samsung Q990B has an excellent stereo dynamics performance. This bar gets really loud, so you have no trouble filling larger living rooms with sound. There's not a lot of compression at louder volumes, either.

The Samsung Q990B has an amazing center channel performance. It's an 11.1.4 setup, meaning that it comes with a discrete center channel to help improve vocal quality. Overall, dialogue is localized to more accurate locations in the soundstage. With its balanced frequency response, voices are clear and detailed in their reproduction.

The Samsung Q990B has a great surrounds performance. It comes with two discrete surround speakers, which offer a more clear and real representation of sound effects in the space around you. For example, if you watch a car chase scene, cars seem to race from one location to another. Audio stretches all around you, rather than sounding like it's just coming from a speaker placed in front of you.

The Samsung Q990B has up-firing drivers built into the bar and the satellites, which bounce sound off the ceiling and back down towards you to create the impression of height. With its balanced frequency response, sound effects reproduce with detail and accuracy.

Subjectively, the Samsung Q990B offers a similar Atmos performance to the Samsung HW-Q930B—making it one of the best bars for movies we've tested to date. On its 'Adaptive Sound' mode, details are especially crisp, and you hear dialogue with great clarity. The sub adds plenty of rumble in the bass, so you feel your chair shake with intense movie scores and action-packed scenes. The bar does a good job representing height, and sound stretches all around you. It performs well in 'Standard' mode, too, but the details aren't quite as impressive as with 'Adaptive Sound'.

The Samsung Q990B has a fantastic selection of sound enhancement features. You have a lot of tools on hand if you want to change up its sound, including bass and treble adjustments and a 7-band graphic EQ. There are many EQ presets, too, including 'Standard', 'Surround Sound', 'Game', and 'Adaptive Sound'. Like most premium offerings, there are features to optimize its audio reproduction based on your room's unique acoustics. The first is called SpaceFit Sound, and it adjusts the bar's sound. Auto EQ, meanwhile, controls the subwoofer's output.

Like many other manufacturers, Samsung offers a feature that lets you pair the bar with a compatible Samsung TV—it's called Q-Symphony. Essentially, it synchs the bar with your TV, so your TV speakers play along with the bar itself. Unfortunately, we found that it doesn't have a real impact on the sound. Audio's a little louder, and there's a touch more height, but you have to really focus to notice it. Of course, this is a subjective opinion, and your own preferences as well as your room setup will impact how you perceive the change in sound quality.

The Samsung Q990B has lots of physical inputs. You can connect the bar to your TV over Optical or HDMI, and there's even an HDMI cable included in the box. You have an additional HDMI In port compared to the Samsung HW-Q930B, which is handy. The USB port under the bar is only for firmware updates.

The Samsung Q990B supports lots of audio formats via ARC. It plays back common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. You can even press the 'i' button on the remote to confirm which format is playing. While there are some reports of Dolby Atmos issues when using the bar with LG OLED TVs, we didn't have any problems when pairing the bar with an LG C1 TV.

The Samsung Q990B supports many audio formats via HDMI In, too. If you watch a lot of content on streaming platforms, you're likely to come across formats like Dolby Digital as well as Dolby Atmos.

Via Optical, the Samsung Q990B can playback both common surround sound formats, Dolby Digital and DTS. Dolby Digital is commonly found on streaming platforms, and you're likely to come across DTS with most Blu-rays.

Audio latency is decent over an ARC connection. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, but overall, the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see. Audio latency is a little higher with certain formats like Dolby Digital, but you can always use the bar's AV Sync feature to manually compensate for delays if needed.

Audio latency is decent over HDMI In. You're more likely to notice lip-synching issues with some audio formats like Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus, which are common on lots of streaming platforms. Of course, some apps and TVs will compensate for this differently, and the AV Sync feature is always on hand in the app if you need to adjust the delay manually.

Audio latency is very good over an Optical connection. It falls on the higher side with formats like Dolby Digital, but you can always use the AV Sync feature in the app to adjust the delay accordingly. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, too.

The Samsung Q990B can passthrough some of the highest-quality bandwidth signals, meaning you can connect the bar between your TV and your PC for clear and crisp text on screen. There's Dolby Vision Passthrough support, too. Unfortunately, you can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz but the later generation of this soundbar, the Samsung HW-Q990D, supports this feature.

The Samsung Q990B lets you wirelessly playback audio from your mobile devices over a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Apple AirPlay 2 connection. Samsung's Tap Sound feature is another way to play audio from your phone on the bar. It works through Bluetooth, so you tap your compatible phone against the bar to get it to play audio from your phone. It's handy, but if your phone isn't compatible, you can still just stream audio wirelessly via Bluetooth. You can also check your country's product page to see if Chromecast is supported in your region.

The Samsung HW-Q990B has a small interface on the right side of the bar. It's a four-character display that shows the volume level and the input as you change these settings, and it scrolls for longer text. You can also press the 'i' button on the remote to see what format is playing.

The buttons on top of the bar can change the input, adjust the volume, and mute and unmute the microphone.

The Samsung Q990B's remote is simple and lets you access many different features, from the sound modes to the 7-band EQ. You can also control the bar using the Samsung SmartThings app.

With built-in Amazon Alexa, you can control the bar from your couch with your voice. Google Assistant is also available in some regions. If you want, you can also mute the microphone to turn the voice assistant feature off.