Samsung S801B Ultra Slim All In One Soundbar Speaker (2022) - 3.1.2ch All In One Soundbar With 10 Speakers Alexa Built-In, Surround Sound Expansion, Wireless Bluetooth Connection And Dolby Atmos

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The HW-S800B's remote control has a lot of options for something you ideally wouldn't really touch… (Image credit: Future) If you're looking for a relatively discreet soundbar that still provides a showpiece Dolby Atmos experience, this is absolutely it. There's width, there's height, there's movement in scenes… it really makes the most of object-based audio. As part of keeping the subwoofer small, there's actually an external power box, which is unusual for products like this. It's no problem, but will want hiding away. There’s a moment 1:16 into Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle where a deep chugging shakes a huge shed before a helicopter bursts through its timbers: the chugging not only had huge weight but stopped and started within each chugbeat, where many small subs deliver this as a blur.

The helicopter exits and flies overhead – an Atmos treat with genuine surround, but not possible here with 3.1.2. Nevertheless, the space generated was impressive; the soundstage stretched wide beyond the bounds of the bar despite there being no side-firing speakers, and yes, large in height too, as if a large semi-circle of sound was being created up and around the screen area.The gentle rumble of Kingpin's machine in Into The Spider-verse really shows the subtle power of a subwoofer. Without being loud and without shaking the room, it makes clear the scale of the giant spinning machine as the sub gently thrums in the corner, in a way that a single-unit soundbar can't really match. There are a great many features included, such as Samsung’s SpaceFit Sound+ and Q-Symphony, which will work when used with a recent Samsung TV, but the key takeaway for all users is the inclusion of Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X processing. (Why not actual DTS:X, given its upfiring drivers? Presumably because very few TVs will pass DTS:X to their HDMI ARC output from a connected device, while no streaming services use DTS:X sound.)

It's full across the frequencies, and the bar and subwoofer feel really well-integrated to create a dynamic total sound. Converted to Test Bench 1.2. Updated the results for audio format support via ARC/eARC, HDMI In, and Optical. Added Video Passthrough to TV results as well. Treble-led effects especially always lift right out of the mix – in some cases, this just serves to make it even clearer when the mid-range struggles to quite do the same. But the strong treble adds prominence and thrills in many cases – a brighter and sharper effect to gunshots, laser fire or the a door slam. Depending on your source, this may not be much of a problem – the Dolby Atmos version used by streaming services is 'lossy' anyway, so not having eARC isn't the end of the world. But if you love 4K Blu-rays for their maximum fidelity, which offer lossless Atmos sound, you don't quite get the best of them here. But it's still a problem I have with using the Arc, and might be something that might (fairly) put people with a low-slung TV off the idea of a Dolby Atmos soundbar.Converted to Test Bench 1.1. With this update, we've added a Mounting test and added information about Subwoofer Output, Spotify Connect, and Microphone Mute.

It doesn’t intrude on listening much. Nor was there much sense of power limitation, so that while of course the mayhem of the final fight in Justice League will sound bigger and excite more air from a full surround system, it’s hard to criticise the size and quality of sound here. This UHD Blu-ray also had DTS-MA 5.1 available; we tried this with the DTS:X Virtualiser setting but it sounded a little phasey, perhaps because of the vertical upscaling. But here's the best part about the Samsung HW-S800B: it sounds pretty damn incredible despite being so small. I was worried that the small size of the soundbar working with a subwoofer would mean the sound is top and bottom heavy, without much strength in the mid-range, but that's no problem at all. The subwoofer connects wirelessly to the main unit, and both units support wireless communication with compatible 2022 Samsung TVs, as long as both are on the same Wi-Fi network, so you wouldn't need an HDMI cable at all.As for music, once we’d connected the bar to Wi-Fi using Samsung’s SmartThings app we enjoyed pretty enjoyable tunes sent by AirPlay 2 from an iPad Pro. There’s a wide stereo spread, just a little peakiness on female vocals (that thinning again), and this was accentuated when we tried any sound mode other than Standard. A strong pass here. use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity. This soundbar offers 10 speakers in total which give out an impressive 310W of power. It also comes with a wireless subwoofer to add that little extra boost of bass to your favourite movies. It comes with many different sound modes to suit whatever it is you are watching, these include Surround Sound Expansion, Game Pro, Adaptive, DTS Virtual:X and Standard. There is also Night mode which is perfect for when the family are in bed and also Voice enhancement mode which ensures you never miss a bit of the dialogue in those important scenes.