Samsung HW-K950 vs Sonos Playbar

This soundbar can produce cinema-like surround sound using the latest Dolby Atmos standard. Aside from the rear speakers, it also adds height by producing sound above the listener’s head, through extra speakers that reflect it from the ceiling. The ceiling needs to be flat and relatively shallow for this to work best, though. The sheer number of speakers together creates a more realistic sound bubble around the listener, as opposed to soundbars that can only emulate it with limited speakers. While only Dolby Atmos content takes full advantage of these extra speakers, even standard Stereo or Dolby Digital can benefit from this extra dimension.

Samsung has included an application that you can use to stream music from your phone, online streaming services and even media servers in your home network to the soundbar via Wi-Fi. It’s also possible to set up a multi-room system with other Samsung audio products that are compatible with the app.

The 8-inch driver of the subwoofer outputs 165W and is powerful enough to make windows shake. Since this can be overkill in some use cases, like music listening, you can easily control the subwoofer levels through the soundbar.

There are dedicated digital sound processing modes that can be used to enhance audio from movies, sports or music.

The easy-to-read front OLED display gives you all the relevant status information.

The soundbar notifies you and switches automatically to Atmos mode when it detects a Dolby Atmos signal.

If you have an HDMI-CEC compatible device, you can use it to control the soundbar.

There are two HDMI 2.0 inputs and an HDMI ARC output with 4K HDR passthrough capabilities, as well as an optical and an analog input.

The HW-K950 has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, for wireless media streaming from external devices. It also supports connecting wirelessly to Samsung TVs that support it.

This soundbar supports Dolby Atmos, which has been becoming more popular in streaming services and new Blu-ray releases.

This soundbar has a classic black look with a steel mesh around the unit with brushed aluminum ends. The screen is hidden behind the mesh and illuminates only when there is a change in input or a button is pressed. A blue LED indicates Dolby Atmos signal input.

The rear speakers are approximately the size of average desktop speakers.

Software updates can be done automatically over Wi-Fi, using a dedicated Samsung app.

The main unit can be wall mounted, using the included bracket, but you need to buy separate wall mounts for the rear speakers if you wish to mount them.

It has 16 speakers that combine to deliver the best audio experience for watching and listening to music. Combined, they have a power rating of 500W for a system that consists of a center channel, two front channels, two rear channels, four vertical channels and a low frequency channel. The highs and mids sound clean and clear, without being flat. Movie dialogue is clear and distinguishable thanks to the added central channel.

This system's combination of nine individually amplified speakers creates a very detailed and clear sound. It has great soundstage and instrument separation, which is quite beneficial for music listeners (and also film watchers too).

This soundbar is wall mountable and has a position sensor to recalibrate the soundbar if the position is changed from horizontal to vertical.

The Sonos supports digital surround signal, like Dolby Digital.

Most people will find this soundbar’s audio output to be sufficient, but if you want to add extra bass or surround sound, it’s possible to do so by adding Sonos speakers. Furthermore, setting them up is easy to do, as the Sonos mobile and PC applications will recognize the new speakers and will automatically recalibrate everything for optimum sound quality.

This soundbar is made for simple use, with a very straightforward setup. It has just one optical input port for sound and two Ethernet ports for network use. All you need to do is connect the optical cable to your TV, an Ethernet cable to your router and install the Sonos Controller app on your smartphone or a PC. The app will help you go through all the necessary steps to pair your TV remote with the system, add additional speakers, sort your music library in the network or connect the soundbar to an existing Sonos multi-room setup.

The Sonos supports Wi-Fi, for music streaming.