Samsung - Samsung HW-Q900A

Absolute. In fact soundbar without rear speakers are not. I bought Q900A without rear speakers and then later added rears. Instant realisation on what I was missing out on.

UK based here - I bought the 990f from amazon a few months ago when it dropped to £799 and for that price its a really good buy - not sure it's good value at over £1000 though. I have a 4 year old Samsung 900A in my bedroom with the 950 rears - and I am still constantly impressed by it - bought with a cashback deal for around £500 in the good old days. I have a LGSN11RG in another room I picked up used for around £400 about 4 years ago - I've struggled with the LG - but am happy with it now - again for the price paid I'm not complaining. I am disabled and can spend days - sometimes weeks confined to bed - so I enjoy having a nice picture sound in vatious rooms around the house - and the rooms don't allow for a dedicated atmos amp etc - in my opinion it's all about performance and value. If the 990F Drops in price again - then I would absolutely consider it. I personally have no problem with the sub.

Absolutely worth it! I have the Samsung hw-q900a in my living room. Absolutely love it.

Best of the best would be q990c or d BUT if you want a very solid one for MUCH cheaper, you can look into its older iteration or the 900x series. Q990c/d are 1000-1500$ sound system. Their price is quite inflated because the biggest improvement they have over previous gen is some features like auto EQ, nightmode, Alexa built in etc… but not much purely sound wise. I personally got the Q900A + 2x SWA9500S rear speaker for 320$. The sound difference is minimal. If the q990d is a 20/20, the q990c is a 19,5/20 and my q900a is a 18,5/20. And its 70% cheaper lol The Q950T can also be a great choice if you have good deals since it is from 2020. Lacks some features the others have but it’s probably top 5 Samsung in terms of sound quality. Very good one!

Same exact setup at our house. The dedicated theater has proper receiver/speakers, living room has a Samsung Q Symphony soundbar with wireless surrounds with Atmos.

Q930 Q900 Maybe

That was my only real complaint with their 900 series sets. A small settings change in the menu, or even some system-wide awareness that allows switching to a different mode specifically for listening to music -- or even older Dolby 2.1 and stereo channel content from any source. Unfortunately, I can't test this setup myself now, as I have the surrounds mounted, but this is great advice for someone else that comes through this thread. I sincerely hope their next iteration solves some of these issues. Having come from a dedicated Atmos setup, I was impressed with the performance -- but not having solid music playback was a tough pill to swallow.

Using the rears as fronts, vastly improves music quality. But if u only want a standalone, maybe look to sonos arc ultra, if thats too much the q900 would be great as well, even the q800.

Yeah Samsung q800 or q900 series are both stellar for dialogue. I hated the older Samsungs for dialogue, but anything b, c, d or newer in those ranges are awesome with dialogue, even when you don’t turn on the voice enhancement. My q990b is fantastic for voice clarity even in action movies at any volume.

Don't buy a soundbar just because it's the same brand as the TV, I tried Samsung's Q-symphony and it's ass. I also switched to a Sony TV while keeping the Samsung soundbar.

I found that Q-Symphony adds a nice touch of fill-in to the front soundstage. Not life changing, but definitely worth it.

The Samsung tv will help with center channel with the Q symphony I believe. Prob will not notice much if at all. Samsung as others had said is def a far better bang for your buck. I don’t consider myself an audio expect but I had what I thought was a nice lg 5.1.2 soundbar and the Samsung blows it away. Voice clarity is what shocked me the most. All ranges of sounds are more defined and crisp even when only steaming. 4k Blu-ray Discs up the level another few notches. There are a bunch of posts on this subreddit explaining how to save a bunch of money ordering some Samsung directly if you choose to go with that soundbar

Try it, it's more musical than q990d or f for sure but sounds thin sometimes.

I’ve had the sennheiser ambeo, Bose smart ultra, and the Samsung q800, in that order. First two were returned for connectivity issues with my newish Samsung tv. The q800 has been great (the ambeo probably had the best surround but only if it connected). Q symphony is amazing. With the first two bars, you could clearly tell the sound was coming from below the TV… q symphony fixes that completely. And the subwoofer is amazing.

If you get a Samsung soundbar with Q Symphony that will add an extra dimension to your system that you won't get if you choose another brand

If you have a samsung tv or plan on getting one go with the samsung. Q Symphony is dope

FYI, I already had the Samsung soundbar when TV shopping. I thought it would be kool to have the Samsung TV to use with the Samsung soundbar- Q Symphony, but in the end it wasnt enough for me to not get the G4.

Get the Sonos system. Samsung is terrible at support. Further you can buy the Sonos components from Costco. At least most of them. Return policy is quite generous as you probably know. Don’t be tempted by the Samsung pricing. It’s just not as good or reliable as the Sonos systems. He’ll even the JBL soundbar systems have better sound than the Q series.