Hands-On With Samsung's Wireless Dolby Atmos Soundbar

What Makes Dolby Atmos a Game-Changer

With Dolby Atmos, during the mixing for a film or video game, engineers record and isolate each individual sounds—from birds chirping to tires squealing—and convert them into an "object." Each sound object is then assigned a particular location within the theater from which to emanate, using one or more speakers to establish the location.

What this means is that sounds are no longer two-dimensional, coming from one plane—left, right, or behind the viewer—but instead seem to come from all over the room. As many as 128 discrete audio tracks are isolated for theaters, requiring up to 64 speakers—a dealbreaker for even the most hardcore home audio enthusiasts. To bring Dolby Atmos home, the industry came up with “upward-firing” speakers, which source descriptive metadata to bounce audio off the ceiling. This helps blanket the room with sound, replicating much of the movie theater experience.

Although various manufacturers have licensed the Dolby Atmos name for home speaker systems over the past year, at CES Samsung Electronics introduced a first-ever wireless soundbar package utilizing Dolby Atmos technology, the HW-K950. We took a look, and bent an ear.

Design & Usability

To be clear, this is not just another soundbar.

Building on Samsung’s Wireless Audio 360 series, the HW-K950 is both Samsung’s first soundbar to feature Dolby Atmos and the industry’s first soundbar package to include a pair of Atmos-capable wireless rear speakers in the box. Combined, the set-up delivers powerful 5.4.1-channel sound that envelops viewers from all sides.

The four individual pieces—soundbar, subwoofer and rear speakers—are all black with metal grates. All have a discreet if decidedly neutral look. The soundbar, in particular, almost disappears beneath most of today’s TVs.

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Coming in at 47 inches wide, the soundbar is 3.25 inches in height (not 2.1 inches tall, as reported elsewhere), making it well-suited to TVs 55 inches or larger. (The photo at the top of this page shows the soundbar positioned beneath a 65-inch screen.) Three of the HW-K950's five speakers fire out, toward the viewers, and two project upwards.

{{amazon name="Interstellar (Blu-ray)", asin="B013TYXV04", align="right"}} The subwoofer is wireless (though it plugs in for power), and measures 17.75 inches in height. Two rear speakers measure a modest 7.75 inches high and each has two forward and two upwards-firing speakers. At CES, Samsung had a looped demo playing for the crowd in a small room near its main booth, but due to crowd noise and tight quarters it wasn't a real, fair test of the system’s audio capabilities.

The key innovation here is the wireless design, which means you don't have to worry about hiding messy speaker wire. This also opens up new speaker placement options, which is important since speaker positioning is a vital component of optimal Dolby Atmos playback.

If you're adding additional speakers from the Wireless Audio 360 series (also known as Radiant360), you’ll have the option of other colors and styles for the standalones, but for now the soundbar package is only available in black. Samsung says it continuing to expand the array of colors and styles for speakers, and the company promises an improved app for phones, tablets, and Gear S and S2 smartwatches, for multi-room speaker placements.

Conclusion

The “three-dimensional” effect of Dolby Atmos produces a more realistic audio environment that attentive moviegoers can’t help but notice. While existing movie theaters have been slow to invest in the technology in the U.S., filmmakers are eager to utilize Dolby Atmos. Dolby says several dozen movies and TV series have been released for home consumption in the format, a number sure to multiply in the months to come. Video games, like Star Wars: Battlefront, have also begun to capitalize on the increased spatial freedom.

Consumers have also been hesitant to upgrade to Dolby Atmos at home. The technology requires not just receiver upgrades, but new speakers as well. Samsung’s complete HW-K950 package delivers 5.1.4-channel sound and wireless satellites, and additional wireless speakers are available in patterns and colors that make them easier to integrate into home environments. In short, the HW-K950 appears to offer a practical and seamless solution for most living rooms. It’s an attractive option for audio enthusiasts who have ruled out ceiling-fitted speakers at home.

Keep in mind you’ll still need to pony up for a Dolby Atmos compatible receiver, and pricing and a ship date for the HW-K950 have not yet been announced. While we’re guessing it won’t be cheap, at least the good news is you won’t have to invest in a new Blu-ray player at the same time.

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