Sonos ARC VS Samsung Q990B | Which Dolby Atmos Soundbar is Better in 2023?

samsung and sonos have produced two of the most popular sound bars on the market but which one is right for you the samsung q90b or sonos arc hey team i'm josh and this video will break down where each of these sound bars shine over the other and which should make it into your entertainment setup i've created individual reviews for both of these sound bars and a sound test file that you can purchase which i'll link to down in the description anyway let's get to it the sonos arc has been out since june of 2020 and over that time has had many updates to tweak the usability and overall performance the full bundle comprises of the sonos arc at 899 sonos sub for 749 and a pair of sonos 1s owls at 398 coming to a total of 2046. samsung released the q990b in july of 2022 and is a part of the yearly soundbar update they've taken a different approach to sonos in the way that they package their product the q990b comes as one complete package consisting of the main bar side firing sub and two rear speakers combined into a single product that retails for 18.99 prices for these products vary wildly depending on where you live and the samsung will often go on sale so check out the links in the description for up-to-date pricing unfortunately sonos increased their prices at the end of 2021 due to chip shortages and high demand for their products they very rarely have sales on their products but do have an upgrade program which will save you 15 so take advantage of that if you can samsung on the other hand decreases its price incrementally during the year and especially towards the end of the product cycle same as its predecessor the q990b has 11.1.4 channels compared to the 7.1.2 of the full arc setup which actually plays back as a 5.1.2 by dropping the side firing drivers when the rear speakers are added with all the sound bars i've tested having the most channels doesn't automatically make a soundbar more spacious it very much depends on how well the manufacturer has used those channels i'll touch on this further in the sound quality section both sound bars are made from a mixture of premium plastic and a thin metal grille so it really comes down to personal preference as to which looks better the samsung is wider and deeper than the sonos but sonos is taller which can be problematic for some tvs as it may block the bottom of the screen this is especially the case for the lg oleds with their low profile bases pairing these sound bars with a tv 55 inches and larger would make the most sense due to the large size samsung has included more connection options you get an hdmi arc port two hdmi inputs and an optical whereas sonos doesn't include any hdmi inputs and just has a single hdmi arc and hdmi to optical cable having extra hdmi inputs may be important to you especially if you max out the ports on your tv samsung allows for 4k passthrough and that's a great way to get dolby atmos from devices such as an apple tv or xbox for tvs that don't have an e-arc port if you want to know more about how this works then check out the video i've linked to in the description speaking of atmos both of these soundbars support full dolby atmos through the dolby trhd format with samsung also supporting dtsx which is commonly found through the use of blu-ray discs and is the direct competitor to dolby atmos sonos currently only supports standard dts which is often found in older dvds if you watch lots of blu-rays that don't have any dolby audio then the samsung will work better for you as sonos only supports dts up to 5.1 channels this may change in the future as sonos updates its firmware so check online for what's currently supported samsung has an led screen on the front and as i discussed in the full review it's not of the highest quality but does show you the info around volume the input that's being used and audio format that's been played sonos has chosen a more stealth look with just a single multicolored led to show you the status on the top of the soundbars are a selection of buttons for changing volume play and pause as well as microphone mute in samsung's box you'll get a very slick remote that allows you to control most of the soundbar functions including power input sound modes and channel levels you'll also get wall mounts for the main bar but not the rear speakers you can however purchase generic brackets sonos doesn't have a remote and relies entirely on the s2 app and to mount the arc all the ones you'll need to purchase their brackets separately i normally split movies and music into their own sections but after thoroughly testing both of these sound bars side by side with a range of songs and movie scenes they're much closer than i thought last year's q950a was quite a ways away from the powerfulness of the sonos arc but this year's q990b has closed that gap right up here's what i found my father-in-law and i sat down to have a listen to both of these sound bars we started with kelly jo phelps as doxology which is an acoustic piece it's very string heavy and the samsung was able to give us better detail than the sonos so being able to actually individually hear the strings we found that samsung was a little bit nicer where sonos on the other hand was better at giving us a wider sound stage so being able to individually place those sounds within the room was better on the sonos the vocals were a little bit more forward on the sonos as well so actually being able to project those sounds and receive them was better on the sonos and the bass was also better on the sonos samsung wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination but sonos was able to give us a little bit more well-defined tighter bass i suppose that's one thing with speakers as you want each individual set of frequencies so low medium and high to be separated and neither one to encroach on the other with volume sonos was able to give us more individualized frequencies so listening to that base it didn't encroach and muddy the other frequencies with samsung wasn't as good at doing that again very good on both ends but sonos was just slightly better in that area when we listened to pretty much any other genre of music you could go either way essentially they were both excellent again sonos slightly better with that bass but we kind of just sat back and was like to be honest like we'd be happy with either of these and especially if you're taking one of these home and you're not comparing it next to the other one like i'm sure you'd be happy with either when it came to the movies both of them were excellent with atmos really being able to give you that full 360 experience the height was awesome i found that with the rear speakers the sonos was ever so slightly better but again you're nitpicking at that point and the vocals on both were very good i suppose it depends on what you're feeding these sound bars in the way of audio formats and that's where that samsung is able to give you more wider range of formats in the dts space but if you're using dolby for most of your things which most streaming services use then both of these sound bars are excellent at giving you the full 360 sound height and the vocals are excellent on both one thing i'd note is that sonos has just done an update a couple months ago and it's really killed the amount of bass that you get as well as the overall sound is a lot quieter i think they've tried to boost the vocals but in doing that they've knocked everything else back so as it stands the samsung does get a lot louder than the sonos and if i was to buy it to play at a party you know you want the most sound that you can get then the samsung definitely gets louder but that may change in the future as firmware updates are added and they boost that sound because it's not a lack of the ability of the actual speaker but it's the firmware that's running choosing which sound bar to go for purely based on how it sounds comes down to a personal preference so to help you guys out i've created a sound test file which compares both of these sound bars side by side with a variety of songs and movies to give you an idea of the differences there's a link in the description to where you can purchase that file and i want to say thank you to anyone that does as you're helping me get on board more sound bars to test and give you my honest opinion both of these sound bars offer a variety of smart features they each have built-in alexa airplay 2 and spotify connect sonos adds google assistant in some countries and samsung includes bluetooth and chromecast audio sonos uses the s2 app which gives you further control over an equalizer subwoofer height and rear speaker level as well as connecting other speakers to set up a multi-room audio system samsung uses the smartthings app which gives you individual channel changing and is far more in-depth than what sonos allows for as i discussed in my samsung review there seems to be a common issue where the rear speakers keep disconnecting this is something that's plagued samsung's soundbars from the last few years and still continues sonos uses your existing wi-fi system to connect all the speakers whereas samsung seems to use a bluetooth connection if you go down the sonos route make sure you've got a good router and a strong signal throughout your house sonos's rear speakers can be individually tweaked in volume whereas samsung's is paired together that only matters if you've got the two speakers at different distances from the main listener auto tuning is where these two differ sonos's true play tuning is better as you get to move the microphone around whereas samsung uses the built-in microphone to pick up the sound rather than tuning it from where you're sitting so where does that leave us which one should you buy well here's the reasons to buy sonos yet tighter base slightly better vocals multi-room audio true play tuning a certain forget system so disconnecting speakers don't happen very often and a better designed app samsung has hdmi inputs it doesn't favor a certain platform by including bluetooth and chromecast for those android users more control over individual channels offers a wider range of dts audio formats more detailed sound slightly lower so it's less likely to block your tv screen and great sound for a much cheaper price these speakers are at the top end of the soundbar market and if you're thinking to yourself well i could build out a home theater system for the same kind of price and get better performance well then do it if that's an option to you you're willing to put in the time and effort to get it set up properly then go for it but for the rest of us that prefer a more minimalistic setup easy to use and really good sound quality then either of these sound bars are a great option and well worth putting your money into with that here are the individual reviews for both of these sound bars and don't forget the sound test down below anyway that's all from me see you guys soon you

Channel: Archway Tech

Views: 186,229

Keywords: Samsung Vs Sonos, Sonos ARC, Samsung Q990B

Id: qlcTREHsvC0

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2022