Samsung’s flagship soundbar, the MS750 Sound+, knocked my socks off with its musicality. It sounded so completely spectacular for the value—lower than $450 on Amazon on the time of my overview—that I puzzled why Samsung bothered to ship its non-obligatory wi-fi subwoofer together with it. However then I watched a couple of films. The deeply satisfying bass response the speaker delivers solo is far much less spectacular with films.
On the intense aspect, Samsung is at present providing an excellent deeper low cost on its companion sub: The SWA-W700/ZA is at present on sale for just $299.99—a $200 low cost off its common MSRP. The mixture is nearly adequate to knock Yamaha’s YAS-706 ($800 at Amazon) off its perch on the excessive finish, however Yamaha has the superior multi-room ecosystem in MusicCast.
The MS750 is a large speaker. Measuring 45.three inches extensive, it’s a great companion for a 55-inch TV, and wouldn’t look misplaced with a bigger set. It comes with the brackets wanted for wall mounting, however at simply three.1 inches tall, it received’t obscure the entrance of most TVs for those who set it in entrance in your leisure middle (I paired it with a 55-inch Panasonic Viera TC-55LE54).
It’d, nevertheless, block your TV’s IR receiver—it did in my case—and the speaker doesn’t have have an IR repeater or pass-through. In the event you personal a appropriate Samsung TV, you should buy an non-obligatory mounting equipment (Samsung half quantity WMN300SB, $50) that hangs the speaker from the TV and makes use of a single cable for each indicators and energy. When paired with a appropriate Samsung TV, one distant can management each units.
Mounting and cabling options render the HW-MS750 an particularly good match for Samsung TVs.
What’s music like on the Samsung MS750 Sound+?
Enjoying the CD model of “I Dug Up a Diamond,” from the Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris collaboration All of the Roadrunning, I may virtually really feel in my chest the three bass notes that are available in on the second downbeat. The low frequencies had been pleasantly palpable, however they didn’t overwhelm Knopfler’s guitar work or the stunning vocal harmonies the Dire Straits frontman produces with Harris on this monitor—and on your complete album.
I had comparable experiences with a few of my different favourite music, together with Bruce Cockburn’s “Mango,” from his Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu album; and the title monitor to Lucinda Williams’ “Automobile Wheels on a Gravel Street.” Guitars, cymbals, and pianos sparkled, vocals sounded stellar, and bass response was greater than satisfying. I had ripped every of these tracks from CD and encoded them in FLAC. The MS750 may decode AAC, ALAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA information.
Samsung says the MS750 upconverts lower-resolution (Eight- to 24-bit) audio information to 32-bit decision earlier than changing them to analog, nevertheless it doesn’t go into any element past that. I do know that upsampling can eradicate digital artifacts, however with out realizing extra in regards to the elements within the sign path or how the sign is processed, it’s arduous to say if that declare is extra than simply advertising and marketing fluff. As a lot as I like the way in which the MS750 reproduces music, I’m leaning towards fluff.
The MS750 has on onboard digital sign processor (DSP) with 5 presets: Commonplace, Music, Clear Voice, Sports activities, and Film. There’s additionally a mode that fires up an audio remix algorithm and permits its upfiring tweeters (extra on that in a second).
Michael Brown / IDGSamsung’s HW-MS750 Sound+ soundbar has two HDMI inputs and one output with ARC help.
Is Samsung’s MS750 Sound+ good for films?
The MS750 is a five-channel soundbar that helps Dolby Digital and DTS surround-sound codecs, however you’ll want the aforementioned subwoofer and Samsung’s $180 SWA-9000S/ZA wi-fi audio system (available at Amazon) to get true 5.1-channel sound. There isn’t any help, nevertheless, for the high-resolution codecs Dolby True HD or DTS Grasp Audio that you just’ll discover on Blu-ray and Blu-ray Extremely HD discs.
As I’ve already mentioned, the MS750 sounds nice with music all by itself, however its mid-range drivers don’t ship film soundtracks with the authority I’d need for house theater use. Including the SWA-W700/ZA subwoofer instantly eradicated that shortcoming. Outfitted with a 10-inch rear-firing polypropylene woofer, this 32-pound beast brings low-frequency results to life. The sub connects to the soundbar by way of a proprietary wi-fi dongle, so the one cable it’s good to fear about is the ability cable. Aside from a pairing button, the sub has no controls: You possibly can’t alter its crossover frequency or its section. These are set on the manufacturing facility, however I believe most individuals received’t miss that stage of customization.
SamsungThe Samsung HW-MS750 has upfiring tweeters, however it isn’t able to decoding Dolby Atmos soundtracks.
Watching Mad Max: Fury Street on Blu-ray was a really enjoyable expertise by the soundbar/subwoofer mixture. Not one of the speaker’s DSP presets, nevertheless, delivered a satisfying surround-sound expertise. Samsung didn’t ship its speaker equipment, however I’d need each it and the sub if I had been shopping for this method.
The MS750 had no drawback filling my 13-by-19-foot house theater with sound. Even with out the subwoofer, it acquired loud sufficient to run me out of the room. However there’s no cause to push the speaker that tough with both music or film soundtracks—nor would you need to, as audible distortion begins creeping in lengthy earlier than you get to its most output.
Samsung MS750 Sound+ options and specs
There are 11 drivers contained in the soundbar enclosure, every of which is powered by a discrete Class D amplifier (the woofers get 50 watts per channel and the tweeters get 20 watts per channel). The entrance proper and left channels every encompass a pair of 115x62mm paper-diaphragm mid-bass drivers, coupled with a single giant (52mm) aluminum inverted-dome tweeter. The middle channel consists of an an identical configuration. That accounts for 9 of the 11 drivers.
Michael Brown / IDGYou’ll discover one every of the commonest analog and digital audio inputs on the underside of the speaker.
The remaining two drivers within the array are vertically oriented 43mm aluminum inverted-dome tweeters. Samsung says these upfiring tweeters work at the side of the entrance channels to “add a way of horizontal and vertical area,” which is simply what the object-oriented codecs Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are presupposed to ship. I requested Samsung if they’d ever launch a firmware replace that will allow it to decode such soundtracks, however I didn’t get a solution.
SamsungSamsung’s Multiroom app can stream music out of your cellphone, a handful of on-line companies, or from a DLNA server in your community.
In the event you’re utilizing the MS750 with different audio sources, you’ll discover most—if not all—the analog and digital inputs you’ll want. There are two HDMI inputs with 3D and 4K/HDR (60Hz) video passthrough help, one HDMI out with ARC (audio return channel) help; one optical digital audio enter; and one three.5mm analog auxiliary audio enter. There’s additionally a proprietary connector for a wi-fi dongle that comes with the non-obligatory subwoofer. Samsung offers optical and energy cables, however not an HDMI cable. There isn’t any RJ45 jack, so you’ll be able to’t hardwire the speaker to your community.
You should use Bluetooth to stream music to this soundbar (it doesn’t help the aptX codec), however you’ll get a wider vary of music sources by connecting the speaker to your Wi-Fi community (the MS750 has a dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter onboard) and utilizing the Samsung Multiroom app. The app shows a sequence of sources throughout the highest, beginning with the smartphone the app is put in on, together with a lot of most the favored companies (Amazon, Pandora, Tidal, and SiriusXM are included; Deezer, Final.fm, Apple Music, and Google Play Music usually are not. Spotify Join is supported, which implies subscribers can play to the speaker immediately from the Spotify app.) Any media servers working in your community may even be displayed on the prime of the app.
Michael Brown / IDGThe wi-fi dongle that comes with the subwoofer eliminates the necessity for one cable.
Samsung says you’ll be able to theoretically function as much as 32 appropriate audio system in your Wi-Fi community, however you may run out of bandwidth earlier than you hit that quantity for those who don’t have a really sturdy community. The non-obligatory audio system don’t use Wi-Fi, in order that they received’t eat into that most.
Is the Samsung MS750 Sound+ worthy?
I like Samsung’s MS750 Sound+ soundbar rather a lot. It’s nice for music all by itself, however you’ll need to add the subwoofer for watching films. There’s solely a lot low-end that mid-range audio system of any dimension are able to delivering. Luckily, each audio system are steals at their present costs: You will get each for $750.