Review: Samsung HW-Q990F Dolby Atmos Soundbar System

It’s hard to convince anyone to spend over a thousand dollars on a soundbar system. Ask a home theater nerd or Redditor, and they’ll say spending real cash on anything other than a receiver and dedicated speakers and subwoofer is a fool's errand. As an A/V reviewer, I see this as hilariously gatekeep-y.

These arguments are predicated on the fact that everyone has the room, know-how, and desire to deal with cables, speakers, and the associated setup. For those of us with partners who refuse to let us place all that stuff around our rooms, and who want real cinematic sound, wireless class D soundbar systems like the new Samsung HW-Q990F take out all the fuss and hardly compromise on sound relative to similarly priced traditional home theaters.

Just place the bar below your TV, the subwoofer near an outlet, and the rear surrounds somewhere that they can bounce sound properly off the walls and ceiling, and you have a ready-to-go 11.1.4 system that sounds hilariously good for the lack of complexity.

Sure, you can’t swap out a receiver every time standards change, but I don’t see anything beyond Dolby Atmos (which this is more than capable of) coming down the line anytime soon. As long as you don’t fear change, a high-end soundbar system should be good enough for years. Samsung itself seems to know this well: The previous-gen model HW-Q990D is still for sale on its own website for the same price as the new bar.

Bar None

Photograph: Parker Hall

The large cardboard box containing this soundbar system contains the main bar, a subwoofer, and two surround speakers. All except the main bar simply plug into the wall and instantly pair, with the main bar requiring a plug and an HDMI cable to plug into your TV.

It’s an aesthetically pleasing setup but not one that visually stands out in my testing space, which makes it nice to hide in plain sight. The brushed perforated metal of the bar and surrounds feel hefty and look well made, with cool angles that hide speakers to bounce sound all over your room. The included subwoofer is a rounded square that is shockingly heavy at nearly 19 pounds. You can place it anywhere in a room; I recommend trying a few spots and seeing where it sounds best.

Other than finding a spot for the speakers and woofer, you basically don’t need to do anything other than turn on your TV and make sure it is connected to the bar system (every model I tested this soundbar system with did so instantly), and you’re off to cinema land. It has an optical audio input, two HDMI inputs, and support for HDMI 2.1 pass-through, which means you can also plug in a 4K Blu-Ray player or gaming system into the bar, rather than having to plug it into your TV.

The top of the bar features four physical buttons for input selection, volume up and down, and a physical mute button for the microphone for folks who don't like Samsung creeping on them all the time. This is important, because this bar does have Amazon Alexa built in, which means it will yell at you constantly if you don't mute it and you are talking about a friend named Alex.

The included remote is the kind of boring black candy bar you actually don't need to touch once you adjust your initial settings, thanks to the fact that HDMI eARC lets your TV remote control the volume and mute the bar when needed.

Content Matters

Photograph: Parker Hall

The massive array of drivers in this compact system really does well to create an immersive listening experience in small to medium-size rooms. Like its predecessor, the HW-Q990D, Samsung showcases its excellent audio processing and driver selection here. It almost doesn’t seem possible that such a simple and compact system can generate musical energy like this.

Most people aren’t using physical media anymore, which is why I spent the majority of my time testing the HW-Q990F with streaming media. I find that Apple TV has the best audio quality of any of the major streaming services, which tracks with my experience testing this bar: Atmos-mixed shows like sci-fi hit Foundation come through with gorgeous clarity and dynamic bass as you’d expect with any soundbar worth its salt.

It's the overhead, object-based Atmos audio effects that really stagger me. Raindrops and creaky chairs seem to exist in my testing room with me; the burbling engines of Ford GT prototypes fill the room when watching Ford v Ferrari.

Samsung has both stellar processing and the ability to bounce sounds around smaller and medium-size rooms nailed. The side speakers on the satellite drivers and the various angled speakers on the main bar really make you feel like you are being attacked on all sides by audio. I really loved the way sounds swirled around me when watching my 4K Blu-Ray copy of Blade Runner 2049, with wavy synths meeting ship sounds and rainy backgrounds among other on-screen noises in 3D space.

Photograph: Parker Hall

There's tons of adjustability when it comes to sound modes (Standard, Game, Surround, and Adaptive), EQ levels, and volume of each speaker, and I'd recommend tuning the settings to your personal taste in your specific room. I found the settings to be pretty bang-on out of the box; I have a fairly traditional home theater setup with two speaker stands behind my listening position and the subwoofer next to the TV stand, and it sounded great almost instantly (I did have to adjust the subwoofer level slightly up).

The soundbar can pair with modern Samsung TVs like the S95F in a mode Samsung calls Q-Symphony, allowing it to use the TV speakers in addition to the bar, subwoofer, and surrounds. I didn’t find this particularly enticing; it seemed to boost the highs a bit but didn’t really do much for overall immersion. If you have a Samsung TV, it’s worth trying both on and off, but this feature isn’t a deal breaker if you want an LG, Sony, TCL, Panasonic, or Hisense TV.

The best part of this system is that it works just fine with any other products in TV land, not just Samsung's. I love how easy it is to set up, and I love that it really does feel like it is offering me the highest-quality sound in the most compact package. The fact that last year's bar is still for sale (and still very similar sounding) is actually a plus: Samsung has pretty much nailed the existing needs of listeners at this point. There are very few soundbar systems that compete, but I'd say that higher-end bars from Sonos, Bose, and LG do give this system a run for its money. That said, none of them have this many channels done this well, which makes Samsung's HW-Q990F the top of the pile for me in 2025 so far.