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JDubbs
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- First reviewNovember 27, 2016
- Last reviewNovember 27, 2016
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- Average rating5
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JDubbs's Reviews
Expand your existing sound system with these Samsung wireless surround-sound rear speakers. Forget about wires as you add these speakers to your setup to get great sound all around. A massive 80 W per channel ensure that these Samsung wireless surround-sound rear speakers deliver excellent audio for your home cinema experience.
Posted by: JDubbs
I saw these when I bought my Samsung K550 sound bar. I thought they looked interesting, but I wanted to try the bar alone and not rush into things. I owned a 5.1 system back in the day, eventually it became outdated and I gave it away. I'm in a downtown condo and don't want to mess with bulky speakers and a lot of wiring.
Anyways, when I saw the price drop I jumped right on these! I've read some comments that it's not true 5.1. However, I can't sunstantiate those claims. What I do know is my K550 does decode 5.1 audio, and when I connect the soundbar via ARC HDMI I'm getting a read on the TV that it's outputting Dolby Digital. Sources with stereo sound these just duplicate all the sounds, but when I play games on my Xbox One, or put shows on Netflix, I'm definitely hearing what sounds like true surround sound and proper channel separation. These rear speakers are pushing out mainly ambient sounds, and my soundbar is taking the voice and the main audio. I know the K550 takes dialogue from 5.1 streams through the center speaker in the bar... Whatever is happening it's awesome and I'm very pleased, even if it's not true 5.1 it's got me fooled into thinking it is. I think Samsung might have dropped the ball on documentation for how to extract the most out of this ecosystem.
One pain point was the discovery to get the performance I was looking for. Samsung has their wireless SoundConnect technology, but from my tinkering this doesn't seem to transmit Dolby Digital. I also wasn't seeing the right results with the optical cable. I think this is because most TVs don't pass through the 5.1 audio from HDMI to optical. When I used the HDMI ARC port on the soundbar is when I saw the options open up on my Xbox One and TV. I set the Xbox on Bitstream Dolby Digital for HDMI audio, and on my TV selected Dolby Digital from the advanced sound menu. All other connection methods left those disabled and unavailable. Hooked up this set of surround speakers today and whatever it's doing sounds like true surround sound to me. I'm very happy with the purchase.
Since the soundbar is a prerequisite for these, it's really hard to constrain the review to just these speakers and not the entire system. For what it's worth, these exceeded my expectations and the pairing process was simple.
TLDR: these speakers are five stars for the money, and to me they sound like true surround sound. Remember though, garbage in = garbage out; make sure you hook up the soundbar so that it's getting a true 5.1 signal to decode. From my tests the Samsung SoundConnect wireless won't do it. Go with HDMI ARC and these pair wonderfully with the K550 soundbar. $70, amazing value!
My Best Buy number: 2501571317
Mobile Submission: True
I would recommend this to a friend!
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