HW-Q800C

Samsung Q800c which I had prior to the LGC4. I’m very happy with it since the bar and the tv make use of Atmos and DTS .

Firstly q-symphony is more of a gimmick so don't bother with it(it is nice but no big deal). Also the q800c is a better soundbar than the bar 500, so go with the samsung. Yes go with the q800f if u can.

I have the Q800C, with a set of matched rear speakers. If you get the Q800 and the rears, it's wonderful.

With the rears, it's 7.1.4!

If they put some room correction into the newer ones it would go a long way. But I could never go back to my $800 soundbar after getting a real 5.1 setup with room calibration.

Spacefit isn’t room correction. I had a 800c. I’m talking about a calibrated mic you hold at your listening position to get perfect speaker level matching to your target EQ curve with filters to smooth the subwoofer response and change distance/delay on all the channels to remove phase cancellations.

Left and right speakers should be as far apart as you are from them. And sound from a speaker is better than 10 drivers bouncing sound off god knows what before it gets to you. Going from q800c (with the satellite speakers) to a used 5.1 setup was a massive improvement

Unless there is a specific reason you’re downsizing, why not just get a new receiver? My Q800c sounds like TV speakers + a sub that’s nearly impossible to integrate properly with no way to change crossovers or LPF, and 3.5” woofers failing at producing lower mids doesn’t help, and I know more tricks about Samsung bars than damn near everyone here, and this subreddit loves them. I would avoid Samsung bars, they seem more concerned with how many little baby woofer drivers they can stuff into their bars more than anything, to the point where proper upmixers (dolby surround and dts neural X) won’t work so they use proprietary upmixers that just just copy audio to all their drivers (the 990 has like 22? To upmix to 11.1.”4” the 4 in quotes because unless you have actual speakers on your ceiling, you will never hear atmos as intended, ever. Period. Not even close. Not to mention real AVRs being able to volume match each speaker to within 0.0001dbs at the listening position with actual room correction and set proper distances (delay). If you’re looking at spending up to 2500, even the nakamichi dragon can’t compete with a basic calibrated 5.1. You’re supposed to acoustically treat your reflection points to minimize them, not rely on them for sound, especially when you’re going to hear the speakers themselves and where they reflect (just not at the same time of course, the reflection or “phantom” sound has to travel farther, and may not even be in phase by the time you hear it, and only 1khz and up is reflecting back to you, lower frequencies don’t have enough directionality. Explosions in video games that are left or right of you with half come from your sub, which should be acoustically invisible, but not soundbar subs. and the front and back drivers working together to produce sound to your sides, but you’ll hear the sound in front of you and behind you too from those drivers. Reflections are meant to be tamed, not used for phantom surround effects, and with newer bars having as many drivers as they can stuff in bars and satellites, it’s an acoustic nightmare. My RT60 times were 4x higher with the bar. I could never go back to soundbars. Also if you don’t have a perfectly flat/smooth ceiling, upfire speakers are just a waste of wattage (I mean they already are, but way more so), and music is hilariously worse on soundbars. Stereo gives you a soundstage not much wider than the bar instead of as wide as your front wall. If space is an issue, just two good KEF meta bookshelf’s and a half decent sub even with no calibration would (soundbar subs suck with being to apply a target curve and all the drivers on the soundbars cross over at like 120 or 150.) I could keep going, but since you’re familiar with a proper 5.1 system, there’s a good chance you will be very underwhelmed by a soundbar, regardless of how much $$ you drop on one. I know this sounds heavily biased, but going from an expensive soundbar to a budget 5.1 system from Facebook market place made me realize how much of a waste of money they are. Especially if they die after the warranty.

You definitely want the rears. Buy a stand for them. I got the q800c with rears a couple years ago for 549. For that price the q990d is a steal. I wouldn't worry about it not being the 990f

I'd spend a bit more , a soundbar is something you'll have around for years , plus ask to try them out , when I went to buy mine I heard the base b650 and thought it was good , then I heard then q700b and I was shocked on how much more depth it had , I spend the extra 200 and bought that q700b , now I have the q700b , q800c, and q990d , and each one is better then the previous and its noticeable

I had a Samsung Q800c and Sub for a couple of years and recently upgraded to a Sonos Arc Ultra with a pair of Era100s. What a difference. The Samsung sounded like a louder TV speaker with no separation. Also since I have a Samsung TV I thought they would pair nicely. Nope. I was always re-pairing and turning it on. The Sonos Arc Ultra is so immersive and I don´t even need a sub. Get the Sonos