HW-K650 and Two R1 Wirelss Speakers in 5.1 With KS7000 TV

[podavies]

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.

[Nick0]

Apologies, I realised they were the 8000's and was in the process of editing while you were posting a reply.

[Peejay84]

It's ok to be honest I really don't want to buy some crappy new speakers (with 3 visible cables instead of 2) to cover rear channels, I want my R3s to work as they were advertised. Those R3s are really the best thing about whole setup, the sound is wonderful in stereo mode and I can play HiFi music directly from Tidal. I'd rather change the soundbar to that new one to make it all work, but since it looks like it isn't supporting multiroom surround anymore I'm stuck with k650. 

Another thing is that Samsung is going to release a DTS 5.1 update to all their new soundbars (they are currently only supporting 2.0) and some of the last year ones. I really hope we will get it as well. 

[abob36]

I really do hope you are correct about that DTS. It makes no sense that even their highest end with Atmos, cannot do DTS 5.1. I also agree about the Radiant speakers in that they sound really good and are excellent on their own. I use mine for when I host parties, and love that I can play one source through them all. 

[scott]

I get 5.1 DTS when I play DTS blurays.

I have to select pcm pcm. Or pcm DTS. Cable box everything is Dolby 5.1 so I use bitstream pcm. 

My system seems to be working as it should but I have to move the sound bar slider all the way down and the r1s all the way up. 

[Robbienobs]

Hi all, 

Latest from Samsung below; looks like they want me to stop sending emails to their CEO's. I have removed email addresses from the post to avoid having this deleted by Moderators. 

Dear Mr H*****y, thank you for your email. I have requested a further update from the senior management team and of course will return to you as soon as this is received.

I note that you have directed a further email to both ***@samsung.com and ***@sea.samsung.com. I must confirm that the first email address is not an escalation point – while we recognise that several non-Samsung websites have  this listed as such – and the second address is directed to the Samsung USA subsidiary, who redirect to our department here.

I wished to ensure that you were not creating further work for yourself unnecessarily, and can assure you that this email address is the correct contact point for your communication.

Regards

[Robbienobs]

On another note I have found an issue when I group the speakers for music playback (not surround). 

I find that once grouped if I use the normal control it will only increase/decrease the volume on the soundbar and not the rears. 

I have to use my phone with the app to increase the volume of all three together (using group volume option) ; albeit at differing rates.

This may have been detailed before but I am starting to lose the plot now with the numerous issues we have and the length of time this has been going on for. 

[Roman213]

Hi, Guys!

Could you please tell me more about your workaround method for surround sound with this setup.

My TV is not Samsung, so I'm not planning to connect it with soundbar via WIFI.

My target is: optical connection and real surround sound. By the "real" I mean that TV is sending multichannel audio to soundbar, and soundbar simply plays it without any changes with decent quality.

So I want to clarify a few things:

1. Is it correct that output of my TV should be Bitstream (or Dolby Digital, or something like that) to be able to transmit multichannel audio via optical? And what about input settings of soundbar then?

2. Since K650 supports only DTS 2.0, it looks like I'm not be able to get real surround from DTS source. So how it will be played? Stereo? Duplication of front channels? Or some fake 5.1 from 2.0?

3. Overall sound quality by this method. Is it significally worse than sound that you get via WIFI until the bad firmware?

4. If surround setup is connected via optical, am I able to listen music on soundbar from IPhone or MacBook via bluetooth without re-setting everything again from scratch after listening?

Thanks in advance!

[Peejay84]

Hello there!

If you want to get a real surround with a good sound levels on rears you need to use Optical Cable. You have to (at least on samsung tv's) unplug HDMI ARC, because having it connected via ARC causes low sound levels on rears even with Optical. 

Some of us report a slight lipsync problems with Optical, i don't really notice it though. Sound quality is good. 

For Dolby files, your TV output should be set to Bitstream ---> Dolby Digital. Make a surround group in the Multiroom app and set source to D.IN. You should be getting distinct 5.1 surround. You can test it with a file i linked few pages back. 

Bear in mind that there's another bug (at least for me). Every time you turn your soundbar off, and turn it again the surround will bug out. Soundbar will do 5.1 to 3.1 downmix (like it normally does without rear speakers) and also output the signal to rears, so you will  hear rear channels in soundbar's L/R. 

Disbanding the surround group in Multiroom app and making it again fixes the issue. 

For DTS files Bitstream ---> DTS. Yes it only supports DTS 2.0, so if everything is set correctly you will only get stereo sound (other channels should be silent). If they aren't your TV is probably sending PCM signal and the channels are duplicating. 

You should be able to listen to music, just change Source in Multiroom app to Bluetooth. Changing the source doesn't cause any issues for me, only turning the soundbar off.

[abob36]

Just want to echo what Peejay is saying, bugs and all.

You do not, however need to unplug the HDMI cable. From page 9 of the manual:
Press and hold the > button for about 5 seconds to turn the Anynet+ function
on or off. The Anynet+ function lets you control the Soundbar with the remote from an Anynet+ compatible Samsung TV.
The Soundbar must be connected to the TV via an HDMI cable.

[Peejay84]

Alright, i've checked and you can't set the source to Bluetooth when in surround mode. But you can still use the Multiroom app to play music directly from your phone or a computer (not sure if there's a Multiroom app for Mac's but there's one for Windows). The app even let's you play music from DLNA sources like NAS!

Also, music in surround mode sounds very different than if you just group the speakers together. It creates virtual surround (center channel will get most of the vocals, rears will get almost no bass), which in my opinion sounds quite nice but you have to sit "in the middle" just like you were watching TV, otherwise it sounds weird.