In addition to ushering in its 2016 SUHD TV class this week, Samsung staged a sendoff for some of its most innovative soundbars to date.
The highlight was the $1,499 Dolby Atmos-equipped HW-K950 that comes with included wireless back/height-channel speakers and wireless subwoofer to deliver a 5.1.4-channel object-based surround experience.
The Dolby Atmos system implements height-channel speakers, among other things, to simulate the sound of objects in the picture moving around, through and above the listener.
The HW-K950 (pictured at top) was an HD Guru Best of CES 2016 award winner in the best soundbar category.
Samsung also introduced a scaled-down version in the $999 HW-K850, which delivers a 3.1.2 surround setup with included wireless sub. Wireless rear channel speakers can be added as an option. Both soundbars are slated to hit retail shelves this summer, Samsung said.
Read more on Samsung’s soundbars after the jump:
Both soundbars have a straight-across design for the front-channel bar section and are equipped with the company’s wireless multiroom-audio technology to listen to music on various connected compatible devices throughout a home.
Samsung has elected to support only the Dolby Atmos object-based surround system in the new soundbars out of the box, the company said. The possibility of any future plans for firmware updates to support other object-based surround formats, like DTS:X, were not announced.
Both soundbars are equipped with HDMI 2.0a inputs and HDCP 2.2 copy protection to pass through 4K HDR video to a connected 4K UHD TV. Both also feature HDCP 2.2 4K copy protection.
The HW-K950 measures 2.1-inches-tall and includes a wireless subwoofer and a pair of 2.4Ghz wireless surround speakers with integrated front-firing drivers and top-firing height drivers. The bar incorporates front-firing left, center and right channels, plus two top-firing speakers for height channels. The left, center and right channels each have 2, 2.5-inch woofers and one 31mm wide-range tweeter. The wide range tweeters were designed to push the cross-over frequencies down lower to minimize globing. The height channels are 2.5-inch full-range transducers. Each transducer in the bar is powered by a 20-watt amplifier. All of the drivers in the bar are driven by a total of 200 watts.
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The wireless subwoofer is powered by a 160-watt amplifier and the rear surrounds use 2.5-inch transducers (one forward-facing and one height) driven with 35-watt amplification.
The HW-K850 bar incorporates a similar left-, center- and right-channel driver configuration, including height transducers, and an included wireless subwoofer. A pair of wireless surround speakers can be added on as an option.
The new Dolby Atmos wireless soundbars are part of Samsung’s 12-model soundbar assortment for 2016, including both straight and curved design configurations.
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By Greg Tarr
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