SAMSUNG Q990F 11.1.4ch Q Series Subwoofer + Rear Speaker, Wireless Dolby Atmos, Q-Symphony, Game Mode Pro, Adaptive Sound (HW-Q990F, 2025)

So, this HW-Q990F is upgrading my Samsung 5.1.4 Atmos soundbar (HW-K950) from several years ago. After having a senior moment and not realizing the plug fell out of the sub-woofer, I can honestly say this is a solid 4-4.5 stars. It only took me 3 days to realize the subwoofer had no power :( This soundbar puts pressure on my custom-built Yamaha RX-A3060 7.2.4 in my family room.Pros:1. Dolby Atmos 11.1.4.2. Much better connectivity with speakers.3. Awesome upgrade to subwoofer, smaller and louder. Side speakers also seem more compact with better sound.4. AI settings really do work well for both spatial sound and voice5. Q-Symphony is awesome, as long as you have a Samsung TV that supports it.6. Works with Harmony Remotes.7. Alexa integrationCons:1. Price - this is very pricey and that was before the new tariffs.2. Does not up mix.3. Small LED Display that is difficult to see.4. Limited notification that it is in Atmos mode.5. Cheap materials - particular on the top grill.6. No notification that a speaker is not connected.7. Does not support WiFi 6 or 7 - network setup can be a pain.8. Alexa integration.Review:This turned out to be an excellent upgrade to my older HW-K950 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos Soundbar. It sounds much better with incredible bass, sound balancing and voice amplification. The bar itself is about the same dimensions and the K950, maybe slightly longer with the angled curves. The construction is fine, the mesh front returns. The LED display is a problem. It's not very large and is difficult to read behind the mesh. The K950 had the same problem. The top grill feels cheap as it is now plastic.The real problem with the display is there is no longer and LED that lights up in blue when you are listening to an Atmos stream. The display does flash that it is decoding Atmos, but it is quick and goes away. You really don't have a visual confirmation that you are in an Atmos stream. Really, for the cost for this unit, couldn't they put a cheap led on the corner like the K950?All the connections remain the same. 1 HDMI-eARC, 2 HDMI, and 1 optical input. Note, if you use the optical input, you loose all the AI features, and it might drop the Atmos support. I'm not sure, I don't use optical. If you intend to use Q-Symphony, you will need to run your inputs to your TV and make sure the HDMI-eARC is connected to the HDMI-eARC port on your TV. Otherwise, it will not work. This means that you will have more cables to hide going up to your TV.The wireless speakers are a huge improvement over the K950. The subwoofer is definitely smaller and now has two opposing speakers. The side speakers can now be placed in 3 configurations, 1 rear, and 2 front configurations. I use the rear. The sound from the speakers are clear with little distortion. They seem to connect more consistently and don't tend to drop out like the K950 could do at random times.The subwoofer itself is incredible. This thing really cranks out the bass. And, it does so without a lot of distortion from shaking windows and walls. You can really feel the bass, but, unless you have it really cranked up is not going to shake your walls and windows. It is smaller.Q-Symphony is a great feature. I wish more sound systems would utilize this. Granted, speakers in TV suck. But if implemented right, they can add additional speakers to the mix, expanding the sound field and enhancing it. I have been running this enabled, and I'm not sure what fields the tv speakers are contributing to, but I can tell a difference when I disable it.AI features - There are 2 AI Settings available. The first is SpaceFit. It will continuously monitor the sound and adjust the speakers to work with the content you are viewing with the room and the way you have your speakers set up. Active Voice Amplifier is the other. It detects what you are listening to and works to bring out the voice and distinctive sounds.I haven't really played around with Spacefit, I have it enabled, but haven't really played with it much. Active voice is easier to discuss. Even in the most bass heavy scenes, voices are clear and easy to hear. However, it also brings out a lot of the higher frequencies which can be problematic. More on that later.There are several ways to connect sources to the bar, HDMI, HDMI-eARC, Optical, WiFi, and Bluetooth. If you have a Samsung Galaxy you can tap your phone to pair it to the speaker. But sadly, it doesn't work with any other phone. It's still pretty easy to connect via Bluetooth.The Q990F also has several sound options, like the K950. You can use Game Mode, which I haven't tried yet. There is Surround Sound like the K950. There is a new adaptive surround mode that I use. It is definitely better then surround mode.My first disappointment with this soundbar over the K950 is it does not seem to up mix to Dolby Atmos or even 11.1.4, like my older K950 did. My K950 did up mix sound to 5.1.2, if not 5.1.4. It didn't matter if I dropped Q-Symphony and connected the source directly to the sound bar or kept Q-Symphony with the source connected to the TV. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the soundbar, or the new Roku box I bought to go with it. I miss the up mixing when viewing xFinity stream.Setup - it's actually pretty easy if all your devices are on 2.4ghz wireless. SamsungThings is much better these days, and will detect all your devices as long as they are all on the same 2.4ghz SSID. However, if you have a high-end router that broadcasts 1 SSID and automatically connects to the correct frequency, you will have an issue. You have to disable this feature on your router, and then manually connect your phone (Tablet or Laptop), TV, and soundbar to the 2.4ghz SSID. You will then be able to set everything up. Once setup is completed, you can change your router back, and everything will work fine.I can report that I was able to configure the Q990F with my aging Harmony remote. Thank you Logitech for keeping the servers open and updated. Speaking of remotes, I can now control the sound from my Roku remote; which, I couldn't do on the K950. Supper sweet! The timer on my Harmony works flawlessly as expected.I was excited to see that the Q990F supported Alexa. I would love to stream my playlist to the soundbar without having to do so from my phone. However, I haven't been able to get Alexa to work at all. The Smartthings Ap always hangs, either it won't let you link your account, or it will freeze in the pairing process. I spent over an hour to try to get it to work and gave up. Even if I got it to work, I doubt it would do anything more the turning the bar on or off, adjusting the volume, etc. It's not an Alexa device at all.The sound field is incredible. Upgrading from a 5.1.4 to and 11.1.4 system is simply incredible. It was a huge upgrade! Dolby Atmos makes it a true cinematic experience.Real World Experience:I choose to test this unit with Dennis Villeneuve's Dune Part 1. I chose this movie because it was 4K and Dolby Atmos from my blue ray player. I focused on 3 scenes. The first scene that I wanted to view was Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam testing Paul. This scene features a couple of sounds that I was excited to see how it would sound on this soundbar as compared to what I remembered from the iMax experience.As Paul walks into the room there is a sound, as if it's Mohiam's other memory coming through. It's full of bass and echos. And it truly sounded ethereal. Just as I remembered in my iMax experience and how it was described in the book. It's followed by Mohiam using the voice on Paul, which is heavy on bass. You could still clearly hear the command in a way that echos in your head. Just like I always thought how the voice worked in the book. I almost felt as though I was compelled to move forward, just like Paul was in the scene. Despite the heavy bass, and echo sounds, the voices were still clear and easy to hear.The second scene that I focused on was Paul's arrival on Arrakis. The transport has landed on the planet, and he, his parents, and court are lined up ready to walk out into the oppressive heat. Right before they depart the transport, bagpipes start playing. This was where I thought the bar was over-compensating. The bagpipes are high frequency. I had enabled the Adaptive Voice Amplifier. There is little dialog in this scene. I found that the bagpipes were actually slightly painful to hear, which tells me it's really trying to bring out the higher notes and amplify them. However, as they walk out and pass by the gathered Freemen, you could clearly hear them calling out Lisam Al Giab - very clearly. Honestly, I had the same opinion when I viewed this on iMax, so perhaps it's more of a flaw of the scene and not the soundbar itself.The third scene that I focused on was Paul and Lady Jesica on the Thopter after their arrival on Arrakis when they are transported to the house. I really wanted to hear the mechanical movements of the thopter, which is heavy on bass and the conversation that they had. The movements of the Thopter were just what I was expecting, it was heavy in bass and yet you could clearly hear the hushed conversation between Paul and Jessica.This supports my experience with non-Atmos content with heavy bass. The bass is what you want but you can still hear the vocals, which previous soundbars struggled with. In the past, you could get the heavy bass and lose the conversation or get the conversation and lose the bass. This soundbar really adds the bass, the depth and atmosphere and you don't lose the conversation in it.I did listen to some of my eclectic playlist on the soundbar and it sounded incredible. However, the bar doesn't seem to up mix content. When listening to 5.1 or lower it does sound good, but not nearly as good as Atmos. As I said I really notice it when streaming xFinity over my Roku. I really do miss the up mixing the K950. The Q990F still sounds great but I feel it could be better. In theory the bar should be able to upmix. Perhaps this can be fixed with a firmware update in the future? Hello Samsung, please answer this....Summary:This is the flagship soundbar from Samsung with flagship pricing. It is incredible with advanced AI features and Samsung integration. All the features and performance justify the high price tag for this flagship item. The sound is incredible but could be better. Particularly on 5.1 and lower sources. It delivers on every front especially with its AI features. But this is very expensive and it's the little things that add up to a -.5 to -1 star.Choices Samsung made, such as removing the Atmos LED, cheap material on the top grill, broken and limited Alexa support, it's perplexing lack of touch to pair for non-Samsung phones (particularly since their phones use android), lack of notification of connection issues, the small (barely readable) LED display, and requiring an account to use SmartThings app justifies a -.5 star rating. Since we can't do half ratings, I have to deduct a full point.If you don't have a soundbar or surround system, I highly recommend the HW-Q990F regardless if you have a recent model of a Samsung TV or not. If you have a soundbar or sound system that is 5.1.2 or lower, I'd also highly recommend this soundbar. If you have an Atmos 5.1.4 or 7.1.4 soundbar or system, I'd recommend this, but caution you to think about the cost vs value vs performance for your application. Especially now that new tariffs are in effect.The HW-Q990F puts pressure on my home theater system but could not replace it - even though my Yamaha setup is 7.2.4. There is nothing that can replace separately positioned speakers and 2 sub-woofers. But it is a close contender. This soundbar is perfect for smaller rooms, like my bedroom I have it installed in. Value wise, I could not build a system with a dedicated receiver, 2 subs, and all the speakers. The wireless speakers are a god send, no wires crisscrossing your room.