AX700

So... don't listen to anyone else. I've had BOTH of these soundbars, and had/heard many IRL. You can find these AX700's open box on Offerup/Facebook for like $150. They're EXCELLENT for the price. In a small/medium room, they are more than sufficient. You get REAL, REAR channels and rear atmos, which the Beam does NOT offer. The subwoofer is also stronger since it's a discreet subwoofer. The atmos effects/quality is good. Not going to compete with a Q990D (my living room), but amazing for the price. The sub won't compete with a $500 sonos sub, but its very sufficient for most people, especially in a small/medium room. Downsides: sub can never get bigger (not that I want it to), no app support - only remote control. But you're not going to mess with your settings that much. The beam gen 2 is a great speaker. It has surprising bass for its size, and the dialogue is crisp. Atmos effects are good, but simulated. It costs more, and has fewer inputs. The advantages for the Beam are: One piece/smaller for space saving if needed, expandable with more speakers (but the AX700 already comes with those speakers). Downsides: expensive. Requires calibration. Sonos ecosystem is both a plus and minus. I went with the AX in my bedroom, sold the sonos, saved some money, and got rear speakers and real atmos speakers. Getting another AX for my gym.

Hisense first, Samsung 2nd choice. And that jbl 595 for anyone reading, was the biggest piece of shit I recently tested. Super odd because the JBL 550 & 580 were quite good for what they are.

I would suggest checking out Hisense AX700Q from Costco. It is a 5.1.4 system at $249 supportin Dolby Atmos, DTSX and Dolby TrueHD. The soundbar comes with height channels in the rear surrounds and it is amazing for the price. Equivalent market model is AX5140Q (non Costco version)

this thing makes my room rattle, might buy another for my guest room

picked up the hisense ax7000, i'm in love with it, have the surrond sound set on pure and its pure magic!!

After 3 Weeks, I will be taking this soundbar back. (Paired with my wall mounted 85” TCL QM6K for reference). All soundbars connected via EARC/HDMI directly into the TV. TV sound settings were adjusted and mainly used on the same presets for both bars. I originally had the Samsung B650/ZA as our first soundbar purchase as my wife and I are NOT audiophiles and only watch tv shows and sports. The clarity on the Samsung was insane. No volume adjusting for ads or commercials on streaming apps (you know, the ones that triple in volume and blast your eardrums apart) - sound was crisp and clear across all streaming apps, movies, and sports. The best part was that dialogue in shows and movies (Gran Turismo and Ford v Ferrari were two movies I watched all the way through with this bar) were so clear and easy to understand, while the loud, booming race portions were deep and had nice bass and virtual surround. I don’t care about true surround with rears, and honestly I can’t really tell a difference with upfiring speakers on the bar itself. I think the upfiring noises get lost on the TV screen as the bar sits right in front of the screen with no room on the shelf to pull it out farther, plus our high ceilings don’t help. For the sake of fairness this comparison is based on just the sound bar itself. Overall, the Samsung - for being a 3.1 - seemed like an overall better listening experience all the way around. The audio quality sounded cleaner and just more “firm” across the board. The AX700 I was really excited for as I thought the 5.1 would offer an improvement over the Samsung for a small increase in price, plus being from Costco, I jumped on the offer and returned the Samsung to BestBuy. I was excited for the rear speakers that also had up firing drivers, as I assumed this would create a whole new audio environment for us and our family viewing experiences. Unfortunately, before anyone freaks out, I DO NOT have a way to mount the rears behind or to the sides of my couch - nor do I want to buy stands. I have 3 small children and 2 dogs who are rowdy, so minimalist approach is what we aim for. I ended up installing the rears on my entertainment book-end shelves, which fall 4 feet on each side of the sound bar, angled slightly towards the couch. I was hoping this would suffice to help create a wider sound stage outside of the bar itself that sits center in front of our couch, right under the tv. Immediately knew the upfiring speakers would probably echo and bounce sound, but was still excited to see what it sounded like. I ended up finding the menus to adjust all the settings on this bar, lowered the volume on the RH (Rear High) and increasing the volume on the RF (Rear Front). Adjusted the upfiring speakers on the bar, bass levels, treble levels, etc. Overall, no matter what, it sounds horrible at low levels with surround sound turned on (both Surround Pro and Pure Surround). Sounds are muffled, muddled, and messy. Shows with dialogue have echo and are soft and quiet. Background noises are boomy and loud. Turning surround off helps with 99% of what we watch, but unfortunately no matter what settings we adjust, at lower or normal volume levels, the noise just has that overbearing artificial “echoing” and jumpscare loud “hits” that come from a short and loud scene. Dialogue is impossible on this bar. I’ve set bass and all possible settings to 0 or even into the negatives and adjusted treble along with cycled through all EQ/Mode settings to find one that increases clarity - nothing works. At higher levels watching movies, the AX700 does well. If you enjoy higher than normal volume levels and watching movies, I’m sure this system shines bright. My wife is demanding this bar go back to Costco and she much prefers the Samsung overall. Our family members who actually are Audiophiles agreed as well, there was just something about the Samsung that sounded better. Watching football over thanksgiving with the AX700 was painful as we were constantly having to adjust the volume up and down, all day and night. We don’t have that issue with the Samsung. Can anyone recommend any other bar in the $500-ish range or below that sounds the same as the Samsung B650 as far as clarity and overall clean and level sound? I would like to upgrade the sound stage just a tad for nights when we do want that Theatre experience, but I don’t want a system that’s dedicated to Surround Sound

UPDATE: Purchased the Costco HW-Q60CF and it was by far leaps and bounds better than the AX700. Dialogue clear as day and the upfiring drivers on the top of the bar gave a nice, clean, enveloping sound from above while not being too overwhelming or drowning out the rest of the sounds. I ended up returning it the next day because I was told by someone that Sam’s Club had the HW-Q65C on Black Friday sale for $289. I purchased the HW-Q65C which is a 5.1 system (no upfiring drivers on the bar, but comes with a pair of Rear Speakers). Overall I love it as much as the Q60CF, but I honestly think the sound displacement on the 3.1.2 bar itself takes the win over the 5.1. The upfiring speakers are a nice touch for those who don’t want the full “surround sound” experience. They give a nice height/depth feeling to whatever you’re watching. I will say though, the 5.1 on the Q65C is just as good, and I find the rears on this system to be more “solid” than the Hisense AX700 (IMO they felt and sounded hollow/plastic-y). For fun, I watched the same dialogue scene in the Gran Turismo movie that was beyond frustrating with the AX700 where I couldn’t hear ANYTHING unless I cranked the bar up to 30, which blasted my eardrums out on the following scenes - the Samsung handles it beautifully. The scene is clear as day at the lowest level (and DRC was toggled on/off for both the Hisense and Samsung to test) and everything sounds rich and crisp. The following scenes are deep and fulfilling with nice bass and good treble levels to enrich the sounds of the cars. The surround sound on the rears (which I also have placed in the same spot on the shelves EXACTLY where the AX700 rears sat) are super clean and not distracting. Note- The rears on the Q65C system ARE wired with speaker wire, which I know most will hate, but coming from someone who does telecom for a living, I prefer it as the wires carry throughput, power, and audio with less latency and minimal noise in frequency. Wireless is awesome, but all things wireless have drawbacks - quality in signal strength and latency is one of them. Overall - Samsung bars in general, but specifically mine that I have now (HW-Q65C 5.1) are 8/10 for me and my family. I rate it that only knowing something like the Q990 would be absolutely INSANE and would for sure be a full 10/10 I’d rate the Hisense AX700 a 5/10 as the system itself offers amazing value, but I truly was frustrated with it overall no matter what I was watching. The units feels much cheaper than Samsungs as well, which doesn’t inspire confidence. I hope this helps others. As everyone should remember - this is all my personal opinion. Everyone is different and I’m not an expert (but I have tested quite a few different soundbars at this point from different manufactures).