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 a hilariously case of gatekeeping.
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.