HW-N950 Woes

[banjax]

So I've had the n950 for a couple of months now and am having a few real issues.

It's linked via HDMI 2.0 to a LG OLED65E8PLA.  Sources are the TV itself, Apple TV 4k, Sky Q and Panasonic UB 9000 UHD player all connected direct to the TV.

The room is 16 1/2 foot square with the TV on one side and the Speakers on the other. 

1) It frequently loses connection using TV ARC.  Generally, I can turn Anynet + off and on but sometimes only a power cycle seems to cure it.

2) It also frequently loses auto power so I've got to also reset that.

3) I had a Sonos amp connected via optical but that seemed to make issue 1 worse.  I think may have read somewhere that this isn't an intended use so I can't have multiple devices running at the same time.

4) The rear speakers (Not checked the sub) are a bit like Jack the Ripper.  They occasionally appear out of the fog of silence, kick into life briefly and are really notable but generally, you hear hide nor hair from them.  I do live in a block in central London which I'm sure does have a reasonable level of interference.

When it's all working its' fab....Dolby vision, ATMOS going lovely but at the moment I'm at the point that I'm thinking that this was a complete mistake and I should have gone for the SONOS, not atmos, solution.  In fact, I far get better performance out of the Bean/Sonos 1 pair solution I have in the study.

Any suggestions to troubleshoot/resolve the issues gratefully received.  

I would be grateful for any suggestions that anybody has because I'm pulling my hair out.  

[KU2019]

also; I can't remember which way round it is; but, I find that some channels are louder than others with my UK Virgin Media V6 box. HD channels play much louder than non-HD channels - (or it might be the other way round - not currently at home to verify).  

Samsung...if you're listening - we want a "music mode" which streams to all channels (including the rears) at the same volume as the front bar. 
(worth a shot)

[Andyspencer100]

have an update! Samsung have taken my soundbar and rear speakers (the courier forgot a box for the sub) back for testing..... been there a week so far, and they keep sending me update emails on the progress.

The bloke I spoke to ,told me this is now a known issue and they have had some success with the repairs so far..... watch this space

[johnjensen]

I think about I upgrade my HW-K 960 to HW-N960 and do you think its a idiea? Less then 800 Euro this weekend in Sweden.

[Andyspencer100]

I’d spend your money on something that works mate.

[Andyspencer100]

Update. They’ve sent it back as ‘no fault found’

[Wpc1]

When buying a new sound system find one that will work with your most used sound feeds no point in having one that is great when playing Atmos DVDs but usless the rest of the time

[johnjensen]

Ok, same buggy ***** like HW-K950.  Order a Sony HT-ST5000 Soundbar  instead. No rear speakers but I can live without them.

[Wpc1]

It's not buggy it's a full Atmos system just that if your not using a Atmos feed then you cannot get the full sound. You could try the Yamaha musiccast bar 400 if you want the Yamaha Sub or the Yamaha musiccast bar 40 if you want to plug in your own Subwoofer. No Atmos but a surround sound once you add the rear musiccast speakers.

[johnjensen]

HW-K950 cant handle 4K HDR from Windows (Black Screen) and ARC was buggy. Same on N950?

[phneutral]

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@Wpc1 wrote:

When buying a new sound system find one that will work with your most used sound feeds no point in having one that is great when playing Atmos DVDs but usless the rest of the time

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correct me if i'm wrong but you don't even own the N950, so how can you claim it's useless and users "arn't getting the full sound" ?

I've owned it for 6 months now and have no issues with sound quality whatsoever.

I watch my TV with a Sky Q box set to DD+ and stream Netflix with a variety of surround formats from 5.1 to Atmos. I also stream Dolby Atmos content from my Nvidia Shield. It sounds phenomenal whatever I throw at it. The people complaining are mainly folks who thought they were gonna have louder surround speakers when playing 2-channel content in Surround DSP mode, or people who don't understand multichannel audio.

Believe me, if you intend to use this bar for watching movies in true surround sound, you won't be disappointed.

I briefly demo'd the Bose 700 before I bought the N950, and for a 2-channel system it was impressive - worth considering if true surround isn't top of your list of features.