What is Looria?Sign up

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Samsung HW-Q950A

Sonos Beam Gen 2

Sonos Beam Gen 2

47 reviews

View Product Details

Samsung HW-Q950A

Samsung HW-Q950A

69 reviews

View Product Details

#6 most mentioned

Reddit · r/soundbars

Best Small Soundbar

RTINGS · The 5 Best Small Soundbars

#1 most mentioned

Reddit · r/soundbars

Best Customizable Soundbar

RTINGS · The 7 Best Soundbars

Great budget soundbar

Improved sound quality over previous generation

Easy to set up and connect

Wide stereo image with or without addition of two Sonos 1s for rear surround experience

Good sound quality for a small speaker without a subwoofer

Great immersive surround sound

Versatile setup with dedicated subwoofer and satellites included

Neutral sound suitable for various types of audio content

Compact size and sleek design

Good value for its price

Not compatible with all TVs

Difficulty achieving lip sync in surround sound modes

Atmos content may not be available for all streaming services

Not consistent connectivity with some devices

Some users have had difficulty setting it up

Customer service can be outsourced and hard to understand

Verdict

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a great budget soundbar that offers improved sound quality over the previous generation. It is easy to set up and connect, and provides a wide stereo image with or without the addition of two Sonos 1s for rear surround experience. The sound quality is good for a small speaker without a subwoofer, and it works well with most TVs. However, some users have reported difficulty in achieving lip sync in surround sound modes.

Verdict

Overall, the Samsung HW-Q950A soundbar receives mixed reviews. Some users praise its immersive surround sound and versatility, while others have had issues with connectivity and sound quality. The system is generally considered a good value for its price, but some users have had difficulty setting it up and dealing with customer service. Despite some negative feedback, many users appreciate the Q950A's compact size and sleek design.

Reviews by Topic

Our analysis shows how reviewers feel about different topics. Please note these are not full reviews.

Bass

Sonos Beam (Gen 2) Review

Loud, low sounds like the banging on a door get enough low-mid power to sound forceful and jarring, but the bass doesn’t reach quite deep enough to give the low sweeps in the background music the ominous rumble they could benefit from; again, a subwoofer would appreciably beef up this sound.

Positive

Awesome sound quality with the bass I desired

I first bought a Samsung T59 soundbar, which didn't cut it. The bass was not good. Replaced it with the Q800A, and it was like day and night. Great crisp detailed highs and super lows that you can feel if you want to crank it up

Sound Quality

youtube

Sonos Beam Gen2 Review: Perfect Compact Soundbar?

Yeah 450 dollars is a bit steep for a compact soundbar like this one, with no included subwoofer or anything like that. But what you will get is a pro...

Positive

youtube

BEST SOUNDBAR 2021? Samsung Q950A Soundbar Review & Demo

Speakers were more spacious, rather than coming from above my head. Keep in mind that the placement and the type of room that you have will impact the...

Neutral

Size

The 7 Best Soundbars - Spring 2022

Similarly, if you have a small living room, you'll want to find a soundbar setup that fits easily into your space. There are many compact options on the market, and the best one that we've tested is the Sonos Beam (Gen 2). It's the upgraded version of the original Sonos Beam with the same small design. However, it comes with some new features, including support for Dolby Atmos content often found on Blu-rays and streaming platforms

Positive

Room Shaking Sound

This is our small home theater sound system, fitting into a room about 10x20. In that space, this sound bar can fill the room with ease and shake the walls without breaking a sweat. Installation and set up was easy, even accounting for the addition of the rear speakers which connect wirelessly. The system auto detects the activation of the inputs and turns on for us making it one less remote to program/reach for to get ready to use

Mids

The 5 Best Soundbars Under $500 - Spring 2022

This soundbar is ideal for listening to dialogue-heavy content like podcasts and TV shows. Its neutral mids reproduce voices and dialogue clearly and accurately, especially when you use its included room correction feature. Room correction uses a microphone built into the bar to analyze the acoustic characteristics of your room and optimizes audio reproduction accordingly. On Sonos bars, this feature is called TruePlay, but it's only available with compatible iOS devices

Positive

Best soundbar available if your expectations are reasonable and straightforward

but it works in a pinch for casual). Yeah, it has it's idiosyncrasies (display on top; Samsung Smart Things controls vs remote; limited gaming connections/120Hz support), but I LIKE the cloth cover! Would I buy it again? MOST LIKELY (only if Samsung has another humongous gift card promotion). Some of my particulars: A low profile is a must (2

Design

The 7 Best Soundbars For Music - Spring 2022

0 setup has a premium design, and its small size makes it easy to add to your existing setup. Despite its compact design, it has a wide soundstage thanks to its side-firing speakers that beam sound throughout your room, immersing you in your favorite music from all angles.

Neutral

Very nice soundbar. Consider the HW-Q900A + SWA-9500S over the HW-Q950A, depending on price

Maybe put a small prism on top? * I gave up trying to enable Alexa on the thing. This may be important to you, but I don't use Alexa anyway. * I also couldn't update firmware via the app for some reason. Worked fine with a USB stick

Wireless

Budget TV Setup Advice

If that’s too much step down to a Sonos Beam Gen 2 or Bose 300 for roughly half the price and again I’d recommend getting the accompanying sub if not right away then down the road. If $500 is more than you want to spend then just go on Amazon and search for something in your budget.

Positive

reddit.com/r/BudgetAudiophile

There's the 11.1.4 Samsung Q950A, there's the JBL Bar 9, the Sony HT-A5/7000, and my current pick, the 5.0

Positive

reddit.com/r/Soundbars

Price

So my thinking is, sell the old gear and get a Sonos Beam Gen 2 & and two Sonos SLs for the rears [This says this is the best bang for your buck \*smart\* surround system around (better than the new Sonos Arc on its own apparently). This would remove the big ugly AV amp from the room, give us a wide stereo image (and in fact, surround image with the One SLs as rears), give us smart speakers in the lounge, and hopefully give us very capable surround sound for movies

Neutral

reddit.com/r/sonos

At the time of me writing this I can grab a Samsung HW-Q950A for $999, or spend a little more on a Sonos Arc and Sub for $1,449. They’re regularly the same price and would have done Sonos but the low price on the Samsung really has me interested. Another point to the Samsung for me is my wife is considering getting a Blu Ray player and since most Blu Rays are in DTS:X the Sonos would be basically useless.

Neutral

reddit.com/r/Soundbars

Wireless Connectivity

Problems with symfonisk frame

You can now select the channel to use for SonosNet, you should only use channel 1, 6 or 11 (you get bad interference on any other channels).

Positive

reddit.com/r/sonos

Wifi ? Sort of, sound quality is great but wifi connectivity requires phones to be present

I decided to reconnect it to the wifi as it would not do so. I spend 1.5 hours with a Samsung tech who finally managed to get me reconnected to the soundbar only to have Alexa still not working. I called back only to find there was no documentation on my first call

Connectivity

Dolby Atmos isn’t the reason you should buy it

At the center of everything is Sonos’ compatibility with pretty much every streaming audio service under the sun. The company has said it’ll add support for high-resolution audio and Dolby Atmos tracks from Amazon Music later this year, and hopefully the same will pan out for Apple Music. Sonos is also granting a longtime customer request with the introduction of DTS decoding, another feature coming to all of its soundbars in the coming months.

Positive

Sounds Good When Works

1 and I don’t want a middle man from my devices to the tv. I will add that this may be partially the tv as the culprit. The setup I prefer works with the Sonos arc setup, but I have had some “handshake” issues with that as well from the Apple TV to the tv itself then to the arc. I’ve only noticed this once and it didn’t last long, but I do want to mention

Volume

Sonos Beam (gen 2) - great sound, easy set up, but doesnt show volume level on screen (new LG TV)

Only issue, when you change the volume, no indicator comes on screen, so I have no idea what level I'm on. Just nice to know what numbers I need to target when I need to adjust the volume quickly for when I need to adjust the volume.

Weak sound and poor support

. UPDATE II: Uh oh. The volume problems are happening again. For shows I could watch with the volume set at 28-35, I now have to set between 75-95

QUICK QUESTION!

Got an opinion on a product you've used?
If so, we want to hear from you! Write an authentic longevity review about the product and share your experience with our community. You'll have the chance to win a $100 gift card.

You might also like

More Alternatives

Sonos Arc

Samsung HW-Q950A

Samsung HW-Q950A

Vizio M-Series M512a-H6

Vizio M-Series M512a-H6

Vizio Elevate

Samsung HW-Q900A

Samsung HW-Q900A

Vizio V Series V21-H8

Vizio V Series V21-H8

More Alternatives