Ok, I need an honest, no BS assessment on how a Samsung q990d system will compare to a cheap 5.1 (or 7.1 etc) system.
I can get a q990d for $1400aud which includes rear speakers and a sub. Will connest with the samsung tv and its all just ready to go out of the box.
Surround sound setups range from free to $40,000… of course a well thought out setup will be better but I just want to hear the cars overtaking me when I watch Ford Vs Ferarri.
For the “sub 2k” price bracket. As a novice, how much am I leaving on the table really?
I think I would rather go with a good 2.0 or 2.1 instead of a cheap 5.1 setup 🤔
“Cheap” in the grand scheme of home theater. $2000 ish.
I think I’d stick with my answer. Unless you think you have the room to place the speakers well you are - in my opinion - better served with a really good 2.1 system. I have a cheapish 7.1 with suboptimal placement and it is really rare (I think it happened 3 times: Stranger Things, War of the worlds and a Quiet Place) that the surround sound actually did stick out as a change in immersion. Maybe it the placement, maybe it is the receiver or the media, I don’t know, but for most things 2.1 would have been enough for me.
In case you’re curious, here is my setup: 6 Elac Unifi 2.0, 1 Elac Unifi 2.0 center and a Denon X1400h
Pretty small room. 3.6m x 3.6m but the setup is offset to one side of the room, but I can get the speakers on the wall behind the couch wherever I want.
I would put sound bar vs speakers as a “once you know you can’t un-see/hear/taste/feel/smell it” camp for two reasons: general sound quality as well as imaging.
General sound quality means “reasonably flat, pleasant, and unmolested” sound. There are a few things at play here like quality of the drivers, crossover design, DSP tuning, etc. “Taste” is also a thing here and many brands have their own tuning profiles. This actually helps make some people more brand loyal simply because they like, or have gotten used to, “their” brand’d tuning.
Loudspeakers have always struggled against Hoffman’s Iron Law which says choose two of the following: Efficiency, Low Frequency Extension, and Enclosure Volume. Smaller things are usually perceived as more aesthetically pleasing and speaker cabinets have been getting smaller for decades. This used to come at the cost of low frequency extension, but for the past 10-15 years the industry has started shifting to throwing watts at the problem. The problem with this is two fold: the physical requirements of the drivers become somewhat nuts (very long excursions) and the electrical requirements of the amplifier can result in distorted output as the volume increases (rates watts != clean watts).
The advent of cheap/easy to integrate DSP has resulted in tons of its use, including increasing low end or at least perceived low end. That’s not to say that all DSP is bad. It can compensate for other defencies in a speaker’s design and can also make them more exciting to listen to (more bass at low volumes for example). DSP also offers the option of different tunings at different volume levels. In the olden days you were trading BOM cost against frequency response and distortion curves. Now DSP can massively help.
Soo…
Soundbars generally trade enclosure volume for efficiency, which means they use a mix of DSP and amplifier power to try to build out their low end. The situation is better with a sub, but sound bar subs tend to be physically small which just shifts the bottleneck from the sound bar to its sub.
Soundbars are also basically guaranteed to use DSP, with all the positives and negatives that brings.
Some who take this super seriouslytm will claim you’re better off spending your $$ on two good speakers, and maybe a sub, vs five speakers and a sub. They would likely skoff at sound bars.
I generally suspect that discrete speakers, with somewhat larger enclosure volumes, will sound better than soundbars. It’s going to take up some space and you’re going to have to figure out that tradeoff yourself.
I would personally say that home built is much better bang for your buck option than commercial offerings.
For imaging, it’s all about speaker placement. For a 5.1 setup you want your front left/right speakers to be 22-30 degrees away from you. If you’re 1.5 meters from them they’ll need to be between 1.2 and 1.7 meters apart from one another. Odds are you’re probably sitting further back than that, which means your sound bar would need to be multiple meters long for “good” imaging.
In conclusion:
- Could you notice the difference? Might you prefer one over the other? Probably. I would bet on you preferring discrete speakers
- How much does it really matter to you? Are you willing to trade off space in your room? A wine anology might play well here: you may appreciate a fine wine, but does that mean you can’t also enjoy more common offerings? Only you can answer this question
I keep thinking about a soundbar to replace my 7.1 but every time I look into it most articles say they’re no match for a system. So I tried a soundbar once anyway and they were right, systems give you better sound and options for the cost.
I’m a massive car guy so I have to ask the question. Is this one of the things that the layman will REALLY notice or only people who are hobbyists or enthusiasts? Because Im used to the speakers in the TV…
Every car Ive ever gotten with a drive by wire throttle Ive installed a throttle controller to get the pedal response I want and had the clutch adjusted to suit my driving style as day 1 mods… most people just drive what they bought.
Every car Ive ever gotten with a drive by wire throttle Ive installed a throttle controller to get the pedal response I want and had the clutch adjusted to suit my driving style as day 1 mods… most people just drive what they bought.
Never even occurred to me that this would be possible lol.
Yeah, a lot of modern DBW cars have fun tricks and quirks like the first 10% of the throttle or so over the first 25% of the pedal travel. So you use a lot less throttle setting off or once your cruising at a certain speed reducing the pedals responsiveness making it easier to hold speed. I want that shit GONE, 100% linear response please.
Not even an old mechanical carburetor has a linear response
Linear response in 25% of pedal travel being 25% throttle opening, or as close as I can realistically get.
So many thoughts on throttle feel and response as a fellow car guy:
- Tip in, tip out, and engine braking on manual cars were done in due to a mix of emissions and NVH
- Dual mass flywheels are fine on smaller engines but I’ve yet to encounter one on a larger displacement engine
- The vast majority of engine tuning has been using a torque requested engine control model, which tends to again be optimized for NVH
- less throttle restriction while in low load situations is a matter of diminishing returns and a past a certain point don’t matter, but I completely agree with the “don’t care, this is what I want”
Yeah I just want 25% throttle to be 25% throttle. Ive only ever fooled with ETCs on Automatics that i either fitted aftermarket trans controllers or couldnt get one. Never had one on a manual, even then Id always be under the hood making sure that I was really getting WOT with my foot to the floor and monkeying with the clutch and putting in a short shifter.
The only time I like to assume that the car knows better than me is with safety on my road cars.
I think it depends, there are several factors like room size and layout. I suppose an excellent soundbar will beat a sub par 5.1 system I think I’m in my situation, a small room, soundbar will be fine, maybe better.
You can’t cheat sound placement
If you want the T-rex to roar to the back left of you and then run around and roar to the very right of you. You need two speakers placed exactly in those spots.
With just a sound bar under the TV the roar is always going to be in front of you
Does a sound bar ruin the Jurassic Park movie? Of course not.
But 7.1 gives you front middle, front left, front right, middle left, middle right, back right, and back left.
12.1 goes a step further with ceiling speakers for each speaker creating more atmosphere
If you want good full sound then a sound bar is fine. And most people would be really happy with that.
But if you want directional surround sound you have to place speakers in locations where the noise needs to come from. No other way around that.
Yeah the Q990 comes with rears. Im not comparing just the soundbar but bar, rears and sub.
You could definitely get a basic 5.1 setup going about 1k. I went with an onkyo tx-nr6050 and a klipsch 5.1 reference theater pack. It blows every soundbar I’ve used out of the water, I would say the q990d has the benefit of having two back speakers and the convenience of being wireless.
I’d say if you get a return option on the soundbar setup, give it a shot. And if it doesn’t meet your expectations then return and look into a budget AVR and some speakers.
Thats another problem I have. Is Klipsch a good but niche speaker brand or a aliexpress rebranded turd priced up to sucker suckers? What brands used to be good but are now coasting on their reputation and making shit?
Lol. I have no idea.
Thats the one thing I get from the Samsung, I know its current tech and the Q990 punches in the same league as the Sonos gear.
Klipsch is like Bose in my opinion… performance doesn’t justify the price tag. I have bought two 5.1 systems from them over the years and was disappointed after comparing them to some stuff I got later that was relatively close in price.
I bought a 5.1 set of Pioneer reference speakers for my PC and they are fucking amazing, but not budget. I can say they are incredibly high on bang for the buck though. I also still have a pair of huge Pioneer box speakers from the early 90’s that are still kickin ass. So I can recommend that brand at least.
I can’t speak for the most recent crop of commerical speakers, but generally speaking as you move up price points you do get better quality components.
There’s been a ton of consolidation in audio brands. As for Klipsch, they’ve been bought out twice. Voxx bought them in 2011. Gentex bought them, along with Onkyo and Integra in 2024. Klipsch is a bit guilty of boom and sizzle, but some people really like that.
The last Klipsch speakers I tore into, which are now about 10-15 years old, appeared to have decent drivers and a fairly expensive crossover in terms of material cost.
If you’re looking for something approachable and not demanding on space, a soundbar setup with rears is a good alternative to traditional setups. I’m not necessarily a fan of Samsung sound myself, but I have a Sonos setup at home and I absolutely love what it did for my listening experience. Tuning it to the room was the icing that made it perfect.
Sonos isn’t right for everyone though. Either way, go find a place to LISTEN to the setup you’re looking at it. Don’t let fancy videos distract you. Close your eyes and listen. If you like the way it sounds, buy it and be proud of it.
I use a Sonos Arc Ultra, just the soundbar, and it sounds great. The app sucks but I don’t use it. Overall I’m pleased with it and some movies sound incredible.
The research I did says the Samsung q990d was in the same league as the Sonos, even if it wasnt quite as good it was still a very solid unit.
The Sonos stuff looks amazing, but once you get the bar, rears and sub it would want to be at that price.
I just wanted to throw in that I would avoid the JBL sound bars with the wireless rear speakers. Every mode but “music” sounds really tinny/cheap. It was a neat idea, but poor execution.
If I go soundbar it will almost definitely be Samsung. They have a rewards partnership thI ng with my employer so good discounts. Plus I have a Samsung TV which has their Q-Symphony thing, which apparently lets the soundbar talk to the tv and work together to produce a better sound… apparently.
It also might all be wank too.
