Samsung usually has every year the best soundbar of the moment, but every year it also thoroughly renews its catalog, with bars that replace those of the previous year.
If you are interested in knowing which are the Samsung soundbars of this 2024 and their differences among them, here you have this comparison.
Scroll the screen sideways to see the rest of the table.
| HW-Q990D | HW-Q930D | HW-Q800D | HW-Q700D | HW-S800D & HW-S801D | HW-S700D | S60D & S61D | HW-B750D | HW-B650D | |
| Channels | 11.1.4 | 9.1.4 | 5.1.2 | 3.1.2 | 3.1.2 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 3.1 |
| External Subwoofer |  | | | | | |  (optional) | | |
| Rear Speakers | | | (optional) | (optional) | (optional) | (optional) | (optional) | (optional) | (optional) |
| Drivers | 22 | 17 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
| Dolby Atmos/DTS:X | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / |
| Dolby Atmos Wireless | | | | | | | | | |
| Q-Symphony | | | | | | | | | |
| HDMI eARC | | | | | | | | | |
| HDMI Input Ports | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | | | | 1 | 1 |
| 4K 120 Hz Passthrough | | | | | | | | | |
| Optical Input | | | | | | | | | |
| WiFi/Bluetooth | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / |
| Bar Dimensions | 123.2 x 6.95 x 13.8 cm | 111.7 x 6 x 12 cm | 111.7 x 6 x 12 cm | 111.7 x 6 x 12 cm | 116 x 3.8 x 3.9 cm | 89 x 38 x 3.9 cm | 67 x 6.2 x 10 cm | 103 x 5.9 x 10 cm | 86 x 5.9 x 7.5 cm |
| Available Colors | Black | Black | Black | Black | Black/White | Black | Black/White | Black | Black |
| Where to Buy | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Not available | Amazon |
Q Series
The Q series from Samsung encompasses its top-of-the-line and high-end soundbars.
As you can see in the comparison table, the Samsung HW-Q990D is the best and most complete of all Samsung soundbars. As I indicate in the review I did of this bar, it offers spectacular sound, with an impressive surround effect thanks to its 4 vertical channels and dedicated rear speakers, which offer an 11.1.4 channel configuration. Inside the bar, there are also three drivers for each of the three front channels, allowing this bar to deliver high-fidelity sound that is wonderful for music.
In addition to all this, it has the best connectivity of the entire range, with HDMI eARC and two HDMI 2.1 ports that allow 4K at 120Hz passthrough, so you can connect a next-generation console to this bar without major problems. It also features all of Samsung’s latest generation technologies and functions (wireless Dolby Atmos, Q-Symphony) and, in addition to Dolby Atmos, it is also compatible with DTS:X and all previous multichannel formats.
The HW-Q930D is the little sister of the Q990D, from which 5 drivers and two side channels have been removed, in addition to the HDMI 2.1 ports, which in this bar are 2.0 and can only pass 4K at 60Hz. In everything else, it is exactly the same, and its sound quality is very close to that of its older sister, so much so that it can be said, without any doubt, that it has a better quality-price ratio.
Clearly a step below in terms of quality is the HW-Q800D, a bar with an external subwoofer but without the rear speakers (they can be purchased separately) resulting in a 5.1.2 channel setup that offers very good sound with multichannel audio, but falls short in spectacularity with Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, especially compared to the top-of-the-line models. The front channels are composed of two speakers instead of three, as in the two top-of-the-line bars, so its sound with music also loses in terms of fidelity. Still, it is a good option if you don’t want to put rear speakers without giving up a good surround effect with multichannel audio.
The lower version, the HW-Q700D, is much less interesting, as it loses another two channels and compatibility with DTS:X but is not much cheaper than the HW-Q700D. Without a doubt, this is the least recommendable and attractive bar that Samsung has released this year.
S Series
The S series is for Samsung’s compact soundbars, or the so-called Ultra Slim, with a very thin profile and designed to accompany wall-mounted televisions.
The HW-S800D and HW-S801D belong to this category. They are less than 4 cm high or deep, so they are really thin bars. They come with a somewhat particular subwoofer: it has an 8″ driver plus an additional woofer that covers some mid frequencies that the bar’s speakers, due to their thin design, are not able to provide.
The setup is a 3.1.2 with 3 front channels, 1 subwoofer channel, and 2 top channels. The bar is compatible with Dolby Atmos but, unfortunately, not with DTS:X. Additionally, it does not have HDMI inputs, only an HDMI eARC port, and also lacks an optical input.
Without a doubt, they are “compromise” bars: they are far from the sound quality of the Q series, have many features, and the most notable thing about them is their thin design and how easy they are to hang on the wall. But unless you really want a bar with this philosophy, it is much more worthwhile to allocate the money to one of the Q series bars.
Oh, if you’re wondering what the difference is between the HW-S800D and the HW-S801D: only the color, which you can choose between black or white.
The Samsung HW-S700D is a lower and cheaper version, but not much more recommendable either. The truth is that this model comes with a “normal” subwoofer that dispenses with the additional woofer, and in the bar, the two vertical projection drivers are removed. The setup is a 3.1 channel with 7 drivers, which are two for each of the front channels, plus the subwoofer. In the rest of the features, it is an identical bar to the S800D except in size, as this model is even smaller, measuring 89 cm wide, and in the fact that it is only sold in black.
The Samsung S60D is also a compact bar but completely different from the previous ones, as it has a reduced width, not height or depth. Thus, with a width of only 67 cm and 10 cm depth, it is a bar designed to be placed in small spaces, or in televisions whose support are perpendicular legs that make it difficult to place wider bars.
This bar comes without an external subwoofer, although it is compatible with a fairly high-quality one, the SWA-W510, and the SWA-9200S can also be added if rear speakers are desired. Without them, the bar offers a 5.0 channel configuration, with 5 tweeters and 2 woofers for a total of 7 drivers inside the bar.
This bar is a successor to the HW-S60A that I already reviewed, and its sound is very good for the compact size it has, although in my opinion, these new models are not as elegant in design as that one was. In any case, the features are similar to its predecessor and the other S series bars we have already seen, having only one HDMI eARC port as a physical connection, and then Bluetooth and WiFi as wireless connections.
Like the HW-S800D and HW-S801D, this S60D can be hung on the wall with the included mount, and there is another identical model, the S61D, in white.
B Series
The B series is Samsung’s low-end range, which can also be seen in their prices.
For example, the Samsung HW-B750D is one of the cheapest 5.1 bars on the market, although the 5.1 is misleading: it has three front channels, plus the subwoofer, and then the two additional channels come from two side projection cones located at the two ends of the bar. Additionally, the already mentioned SWA-9200S can be purchased to form a setup that would become 7.1 channels, not bad.
However, this bar does not decode Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, and the only multichannel format it supports is Dolby 5.1. Additionally, its HDMI input port does not support 4K signal, and of course, the second HDMI is ARC, not eARC. Despite these limitations, the HW-B750D has quite decent sound, and it is a good option for someone without many demands and looking for a bar that matches well with a Samsung TV.
The same can be said of the HW-B650D, a 3.1 bar that dispenses with the two side projection cones but retains the rest of the features. This is a very economical bar that, without a doubt, gains a lot if combined with the optional rear speakers, thus forming a 5.1 setup of superior quality, for example, to a Sony HT-S40R -one of my recommended low-cost soundbars– but also, it must be said, more expensive.
