07-12-2016 01:35 PM
When using the K650 sound bar and two R1 Wireless speakers in surround sound mode over wifi with the latest firmware, The quailty of the sound K650 drops, sounds very muddy. As soon as you use the sound bar on it own, the sound bar improves. this is happening for a quite a few users.
can you help.
15-04-2017 11:45 AM
I've just sent this to the head of Samsung UK, but it would appear the email address is blocking my incoming email. So here is my response to Samsung...
Dear Mr Archer,
15-04-2017 11:55 AM
Thanks...... May be blocked as you attached files. I did this before and had the same results.
If anyone wants to join in its not too late just pm me your email address's
15-04-2017 12:31 PM
Dear John
Having seen the trouble that many Samsung customers have had with the Samsung TV, K650 soundbar and R1 speaker combination when used as a surround sound solution (including me), I was able to return all my gear to Richer Sounds without penalty and swap for a far superior combination of HEOS homecinema and 2x HEOS 5 HS2. The smartphone app and setup instructions are so easy and the quality is truly amazing. Although twice the price of the Samsung solution I at least have a system I am comfortable with. Interestingly, the rear speakers also occasionally ungroup themselves when you first turn the TV on each day but they rediscover each other. I also use an optical in for the TV to soundbar (which was also my preferred setup when I had the Samsungs).
I have always been a huge fan of Samsung products and always thought that combining components from the same manufacturer would be the obvious solution. Clearly I was wrong. I'm pleased that I made transition but I sympathise with you all
best wishes and good luck
15-04-2017 01:22 PM - last edited 15-04-2017 03:55 PM
Hi,
I have sent the following message to the CEO using the link Robbienobs supplied. Initially, it did not send but I think this was a time-out so I refereshed the form and pasted my communication back in the blank field and it was dispatched successfully.
"Dear CEO,
I have taken the trouble to contact you as I am very dissatisfied with the performance of my Samsung HW-K650 sound bar when trying to use them wirelessly as a WiFi connected 5.1 surround system. This email is in support of the contact made with you under the above customer reference.
Personally, I bought a new Samsung UE49KS8000 TV in Oct 16 and after much online research, I bought the HW-K650 3.1 sound bar because it offered the opportunity to create a 5.1 wireless WiFi surround sound system. When, in March 17, I then purchased two Radiant 360 R1's I was impressed by the sound quality. At that stage the speakers did an automatic firmware update. BUT when I set up the system with WiFI grouped to deliver 5.1 surround sound using the official protocol, I was very disappointed to discover that the surround sound experience was woefully inadequate. Within an hour of taking delivery of them, I was considering returning them as faulty but thought I would do some research to see if I was alone with this problem. A brief online search revealed that many others, in the US and UK on the Samsung Community websites., were discussing the poor volume of the R1's in WIFi surround sound mode. There are others. One retailer (Curry UK) product feedback also has customer reviews highlighting this problem.
I contacted first-line Samsung customer services who in response, utterly failed to appreciate the fault. Subsequently, the firmware of the HW-K650 and R1's has been remotely updated but this HAS NOT corrected the fault.
Without the support of the UK Samsung Community forums where one member had discovered a method using the optical cable connection to get an acceptable surround sound experience which is very inconvenient to control, I would have returned the speakers as I would have no use for them. Using a cable is claimed by Samsung to be only necessary when the sound bar is used with non-Samsung TV's.
The bottom line is that the HW-K650 with R1's connected wirelessly by WiFi to a Samsung smart TV (UE49KS8000) fails to deliver the surround sound experience one would expect, as claimed in the product description. e.g. From a retailers website:
"Create true surround sound without wires
Enjoy the freedom to fill every room of your home with music by adding Samsung Multiroom speakers to the system or create your own wireless 5.1 surround system."
It is edifying to compare the R1's rear speaker output using the optical cabled TV-to-sound bar connection with the WiFi wireless set up. In comparison, the wireless setup falls woefully short of satisfactory for me and many others.
It is a shame that this one issue, which must be within the ability of your engineers to resolve, blights an otherwise excellent system and concept! I do hope that you can encourage those responsible to find the solution to this fault or lack of performance and accept the gratitude of all those affected.
I look forward to receiving your response.
Yours faithfully
A. Nicol"
I hope I have not understated the problem.
15-04-2017 01:29 PM
Wait, Heos has an ability to add additional speakers for 5.1 surround? I was thinking about buying it before I got my Samsung set, but nothing on their site said anything about 5.1 setup with additional speakers.
Also, I did notice while binge watching The Walking Dead, that center channel (no matter if using just k650 alone or in 5.1) isn't in fact supported by a subwoofer like someone said here before.
I wonder if it's just another bug on the long list of bugs, or its intentional.
15-04-2017 01:36 PM
15-04-2017 01:50 PM
15-04-2017 03:24 PM - last edited 16-04-2017 10:04 AM
This morning I submitted my complaint to the CEO and then went back to looking at a test file I had been using. The file was from:
https://archive.org/details/5.1SurroundSoundTestFilesVariousFormatsAACAC3MP4DTSWAV
I played this directly through the Web Browser on my Samsung TV.
I had tried this last night and did not get it to indicate acceptable surround sound using the wireless set up but it did indicate a degree 5.1 separation when the optical connection was used.
However, this morning, when I changed the Audio Format on the TV to Dolby Digital, one of the 5 files available, the top listed namely, “1. 5.1 Surround Sound AAC test” clearly demonstarted discrete separation of all channels, including the sub-woofer. None of the other files dd so.
Surprisingly, this worked equally well whether using optical or the wifi only connections.although having to reconfigure Surround Sound on the App when changing sources back to D.IN
I followed these steps:
Set Soundbar to D.IN
Set TV Speaker ouput to Audio out/Optical
Checked Group in Multiroom App set to Surround Sound
Set HDMI to PCM (probably irrelevant)
Set Audio Format to Dolby Digital
Used the test file 5.1 ACC and noted discrete separation of all 5.1 channels with proper volume levels.
Accessed TV Settings
Selected “[AV] Samsung Sounbar K650 + 2CH (Wi-Fi)”
Noted Soundbar connects through WiFi
Noted that the Speakers were automatically regrouped in the Multiroom App when changing from Optical to Wi-Fi.
Played the test file again and the result was identical to that using Optical
The particular test files are I think, simply the one file formatted to different codecs. and so are based upon a single recording but only the one behaves as I think it should. Yet, when watching TV through SKY, Netflix etc., the WiFi still fails to deliver an obvious surround sound effect. Is the abilty of the TV/Soundbar to decode various formats very restricted? (I am no expert on audio file formats as you can see.)
I would be interested to hear if anyone can replicate this and your views on what implications it has for a wifi solution.
<I have edited this to make it clearer>
15-04-2017 03:54 PM
Hi
I have no problem achieving channel separation on either optical or WiFi. The problem over WiFi is with the lack of volume on the rear speakers. The volume of the rears is fine over optical. The drawback of optical though is a noticeable delay on the audio. Not all the time but enough to cause frustration. I have tried many test files and get real 5.1 from most of them.
Lee
15-04-2017 04:03 PM