topic Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony in Audio & Video

SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Mastajacobius — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:16:02 GMT

Hello everyone,

I have a quick question I really want to clarify before I jump the wallet for my next audio/tv upgrade.

Currently I have QN90A Neo QLED tv and HW-Q700A soundbar connected together with HDMI e-ARC cable, paired into Q-symphony.

Recently I've been thinking about buying SWA-9500S rear speakers as extension for my Q700A soundbar to get that true surround sound and Dolby Atmos goodness.

My question: Can all of those three (TV + soundbar + rear speakers) work together at once in Q-symphony?
Emphasis on: Do TV speakers work as well when everything is connected?

This is really concerning me because I don't want to invest 250€ in rear speakers to have TV speakers not work... or vice versa.

Thanks in advance!
Masta

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

AndrewL — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 18:05:31 GMT

@Mastajacobius: As Q-Symphony creates a surround sound experience using your soundbar and TV speakers, the addition of rear speakers may conflict with the feature. If you did decide to purchase the SWA-9500S rear speakers, then I would advise disabling Q-Symphony, as the speakers will provide true surround sound.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on Q-Symphony with your current set up, though. How are you finding it so far?

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Mastajacobius — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:07:52 GMT

@AndrewL thanks for the reply.

I'd like to disclaim that I am no audiophile by any measure and I don't understand all the nooks and crannies of both audio software and hardware so some of my comments and terminologies might be off so forgive my ignorance

When it comes to Q-symphony I'd have to divide my comment for non-surround content (sports, news, Youtube, live steams) and for surround content (movies, TV shows, games).
When it comes to both non-surround and surround content I can say that with feature on - sound is so much richer, fuller... for the lack of better word. It's almost night and day difference compared to only soundbar audio output where it feels kind of... lacking? At least in comparison. I fell in love with Q-symphony.
Maybe I'd love soundbar as only audio output if I never heard Q-symphony in the first place... haha

However, when it comes to surround content - 3D audio feel / spaciousness of soundstage, it can never really replicate true surround setup with rear speakers which is obvious... but "richer" audio quality still applies as explained above. Exactly for this reason I want to get SWA-9500S rear speakers to just add more surround feel to already amazing sounding setup without losing audio quality that Q-symphony offers... I'll elaborate on this in next paragraph.

In case I would have to turn off Q-symphony, I feel like I'd have to sacrifice that richness and quality of sound for better 3D audio feel. This problem would be especially pronounced with non-surround content as I'd be left with only soundbar outputting audio... without utilizing TV's speakers and rear speakers. I may be wrong here and I'd be happy to hear otherwise...

What prompted my inital post and my worries about losing Q-symphony are Samsung's Brand Ambassador replies on user reviews for SWA-9500S at (https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/home-theater/subwoofers-and-speaker-kits/swa-9500s-wireless-rear-speaker-kit-w-dolby-atmos-dts-x-swa-9500s-za/) and I'll quote important bit:
"By design, the surround speakers are supposed to simulate sounds happening behind the viewer. Therefore, most of the time the surround channels are only used for ambient sounds, which are naturally lower in volume."
This enforces my worries explained above. I am debating if my setup is worth the upgrade with SWA-9500S if I have to sacrifice a great feature and sound quality to have rear speakers work.
At least I'd like to have realistic expectations as it's really hard to make decisions about sound by reading about them... without actually hearing the thing work

To go back to your answer, you say: "...the addition of rear speakers may conflict with the feature."

This may leaves me on square one, in uncertainty. I really don't want to sound ungrateful but I felt this should be a yes or no answer. But fair enough if you just don't know for sure - I'll have to wait for other replies.
Looking forward to hear from other people's experiences!

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

David_27 — Thu, 04 May 2023 01:56:22 GMT

Just came across this interesting thread. @Mastajacobius By now you must have noticed that Samsung sells soundbars that already include rear speakers and advertise them as Q-Symphony compatible.

I've done some testing on my own and found a Atmos scene where the sound that was supposed to come out of the rear spears, came out of the TV instead.

Rear speakers are crucial for a good surround. Did you ever but the rear speakers and have you tested?

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Joeuey — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 06:40:26 GMT

I know it's an old post, but maybe useful for future reference and people googling.

I have a very similar setup (hw-700b, swa-9500s, and a qn85). Can confirm: the tv speakers indeed seem to interfere with the surround sound. For all Dolby Atmos demos I've tried, Q-symphony makes the sound coming from the tv the same as that coming from the rear speakers.

I will try to play around with settings again soon, and see if there is a way to have my cake and eat it too. If there is some magic combination of settings that helps I'll report back.

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Gamzo — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 02:58:59 GMT

It's probably a silly question. but can you use the tv speakers and rear speakers without a soundbar?

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Prevail — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 06:10:46 GMT

Nope, and if you could the TV speakers are so weak that those Rear speakers would dominate them in every way, sound quality, sound thickness, a wider frequency of rear sounds (rear speakers are made to expand alll around you. Like a full circle except, rears only reach half that circle while the sound bars do the Samething and meet halfway to eachoher completeling that “full surround sound circle” especially if you have Dolby atmos then you have the rear speaker’s top firing (Dolby atmos) reaching halfway while the soundbars also reach the other half. So actually technically It’s a 360 degree bubble since you have Spatial Audio

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Prevail — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 06:18:19 GMT

Well I do see this post is old but has recently been brought back to life just a few months ago back in 2023.

I also have Q-Symphony on my Tv along with a Q-700 followed by the SWA-9500S Rear speakers.

I’ve done ALOT of testing today with using q symphony and my full Dolb Atmos setup.
So I think it’s time to Revive this Topic. I’m also pretty hands on with all this Tech!

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

David_27 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 21:24:03 GMT

@Prevail wrote:

Well I do see this post is old but has recently been brought back to life just a few months ago back in 2023.

I also have Q-Symphony on my Tv along with a Q-700 followed by the SWA-9500S Rear speakers.

I’ve done ALOT of testing today with using q symphony and my full Dolb Atmos setup.
So I think it’s time to Revive this Topic. I’m also pretty hands on with all this Tech!

And what did you find in your testing?

Re: SWA-9500S rear speakers Q-symphony

Peter249 — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:33:58 GMT

I got s700d soundbar with my tv and wanted to enhance it’s sound by adding swa 9500s (in the description of s700d soundbar (in samsung website) it says that it is compatible with swa 9500s but I still wanted to double check so I asked samsung support chat to confirm that they will work together and as they confirmed that i ordered the swa 9500s and unfortunately it is not possible to pair them and also when i check swa 9500s compatible devices it does not mention the s700d soundbsr so i don’t understand why it has to be so confusing, i lost so much time dealing with this mess.