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!

Go for Samsung Q series preferably the Q9 or try the Samsung B750 if you are budget conscious. If you looking for JBL go for higher trims

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.

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

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.

Q930 Q900 Maybe

My 9.1 sounded amazinf for 1 day, then right detachable speaker started popping and making static sound, at full volume. reset, unplugged, finaly returned. Bought Samsung Q900 (no rears). sounds great.