We used a Samsung Q990 in our bedroom. The bed is against the wall, surrounds in the back corners, and it was fine. Replaced it with a Sony HT-A9 with SW3 sub I found in fb marketplace for 750. The Sony surrounds are the the same spot as the 990 surrounds, but fills the room a lot better. Of course having the surrounds behind you would be better, but the experience without surrounds at all would be worse for us.
It can be distracting at first, just need adjust the surround levels to you're liking. Our system did make my wife think something was happening in another part of the house at first, I got a kick out of it the first week lol.
That I couldn't answer for you, as I have never tried the Bar 9. I will say the Samsung 990 is better at dialog, but the Sony HT-A9 is better at creative an enveloping sound field. Both are very good, if you can find a deal on the Sony HT-A9 or Quad, I don't think you will be disappointed, just try to pair it with the SW5, the SW3 I have is a little lacking, but still good.
If you have the money to spare do it. Due to be a Sony Electronics product the Soundbar menu is integrated into the TV menu, and you can control everything with the TV controller ( besides the mobile app for more specialised stuff ).
Hey there! Just my two cents but my girlfriend and I recently purchased a Bravia 7 85' and the full Theater Bar 9 set up with SW5 sub and SA-5 rears and we are very happy with our purchase, although admittedly I did spend a fair amount of time messing around with the system's different sound settings including using acoustic Center sync.
After following the advice of others here, I have to agree that the ACS feature is kind of a gimmick as it kind of makes the sound a bit treble heavy. Moreover, you can tell that the TV speakers are being used just because of the difference in timbre between the TV speakers and the soundbar's.
In short, it's a great home theater solution WHEN SET UP CORRECTLY.
I've never owned a Sonos system, much less the Arc Ultra although it was on our radar through deals at Costco but to our ears, the Sonos sound reproduction just sounded a little hollow whereas the Theater Bar 9 always sounds very full and encompassing. Granted I know reviews for it are always through the moon so take my anecdotal experience with a grain of salt and try it out for yourself.
In my experience though, I've owned a Samsung soundbar for a long while as well and I've always been very happy with their offerings. You can snag the Q990D on a deep discount right now on Amazon as well.
Top Soundbars on Reddit
1
Samsung
Q990F
77% positive of 600 users
Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.
mjag1
