Sonos Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc Ultra vs Samsung HW-Q990F: Finding the Best Bar for the Job

0:00 Your home theater setup might look amazing, but if your soundbar is a decade old, it's probably the weak link. Enter today's game-changing flagship contenders, the Samsung HWQ990F and the Sonos Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc Ultra. If you're looking to spice things up in the home cinema room, and are willing to shell out for the best of the best, look no further. Hi, I'm Alex from ratings.com, and today I'll be helping you find your soundbar soulmate. [Music] First things first, no one in the Sonos or Samsung design teams is trying to reinvent the soundbar here. Both are long black bars that take up about the same amount of space, though the Samsung

0:45 is about 2 in longer. The Samsung features more edges in general. The bar itself is rectangular, while the sub and satellites are roughly cuboid. The bar is covered in little perforations for a sleek look that also protects the drivers, and the satellite speakers follows similar design cues. The main change to the design of the previous generation Q90D is the redesigned sub, which now has a much smaller footprint. A welcome change given how subwoofers tend to stick out like sore thumbs. The Sonos Ensemble's design features more rounded edges. The bar itself is cylindrical, also with perforations covering its body. The sub looks like something out of a sci-fi film and can be positioned both vertically and horizontally. Satellite speakers might be familiar to Bluetooth speaker afficionados comprising a pair of Sonos

1:32 Era 300 speakers. They are a fair bit larger than the Samsung Satellites 2. You can also use a pair of Sonos Era 100s if you already have these, but we haven't been able to test this configuration out yet. There's very little to separate the two bars when it comes to build quality. In both cases, you get what you pay for. They're sturdy and well constructed and will last you a long time if you take care of them. The Samsung features a bit more metal in its construction in addition to the dense plastic used throughout. While the Sonos is an all plastic affair, the Sonos comes with special cables that are molded to fit flat against the soundbar. Though, these are a nice touch that prevent your cables from sticking out and give you more space to work with on a TV stand or wall mount. The differences between the two become a bit clearer when it comes to their

2:18 connectivity options and format support. The proverbial bar has never been higher when it comes to these aspects. With a lot demanded from today's home theater systems, the Samsung passes with flying colors here as it features a myriad of connectivity options. HDMI ERC, optical, and not one but two full HDMI in ports. Truly everything but the kitchen sink. Speaking of sync, latency is very low with each of these connection types, too, across all format types. Plus, the HDMI import supports 10-bit 4K at 120 Hz pass through and can even handle 8K passrough at a 60 Hz refresh rate. Perfect if you want the lowest latency performance with gaming consoles or if you use your soundbar as a hub between a

3:04 display and console. How does the Sonos stack up by comparison? Frankly, not well. While there's an Eer port, there's no sign of an optical port or an HDMI in, shattering any pass through related dreams. While latency is low over ER, the lack of other connectivity options seems like a missed opportunity. The upward trend for the Samsung continues into audio format support, too. It's compatible with just about everything. Dolby Digital, DTS, Atmos, DTSX, even fledgling 3D audio formats like Eclipsa are given the time of day. The same can't be said about the Sonos, which omits DTSX support. At least it's more of a level playing field when it comes to wireless connectivity, where both bars are well featured and compatible with popular options like Wi-Fi,

3:51 Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, and Spotify Connect. The Samsung does have a slight edge though with its Chcast compatibility. Still, unless chcast is make or break for you, you'll be in good hands with either. You old school folks that love the comfort of a dedicated remote might dislike the Sonos's app only functionality though. While the Samsung comes with one, Sonos have opted to cut costs by leaving this out. So instead of losing your remote, you could just lose your phone instead. While the Samsung technically scores better in stereo frequency response than the Sonos, both bars have almost identical default sound profiles. They both can render your audio in a balanced way with solid low-end frequency extension, detailed mids, and transparent highs. If

4:36 we're nitpicking, the Sonos has some slight unemphasis in the mid-range that can hollow out voices, but it's a very minor quirk. Neither bar really benefits from extra calibration via the EQ settings either. Having zero room for improvement is a good sign. You can just run the respective room calibration functions and enjoy stunning sound. Casting our attention to the stereo sound stage performance, the Sonos actually comes out on top when it comes to creating a wide and immersive stereo plane. While the Samsung does a good job of conveying stereo width, the Sonos goes the extra mile or a few inches. The sound seems to extend beyond the edges of the bar for an enveloping feeling. Unfortunately, we don't have the same platitudes for the Sonos's center channel performance. It's quite good at

5:22 rendering dialogue clearly, but there's a little too much bass in this channel for our liking, which can muddy speech unnecessarily. By comparison, the Samsung center channel is as even as they come, capturing the lil in your favorite actor's voices, regardless of their pitch. You'll have no trouble pinpointing where dialogue is coming from either, even when conversation is ping-ponging back and forth. When it comes to dynamics, these two bars perform similarly, but have different strengths. The Samsung can achieve a whopping 99 dB SPL top volume, enough to rattle the windows of a small apartment. However, there's some bassrange compression present at max volume that can cause rumbling sounds to lose some of their punch. The Sonos can't quite reach those lofty heights in terms of volume, but it does provide one of the

6:09 most compression-free performances of any bar we've tested. It's worth noting that playback volume isn't quite even across different channels, though, which might bother some people. When it comes to surround sound, there's not much separating these two. Both bars come with discrete satellite speakers, and while the Samsung gets a higher score in this test, choosing between them might be a matter of personal preference. The Samsung's response across the 5.1 channels is virtually flat, while the Sonos adds a little low-end spice, which can add boom and thump to the mix. The fact that the Sonos Era 300's are fullyfledged speakers means they're louder with less distortion, too. You can use Sonos ERA 100 speakers as your satellites instead of the ERA 300's we used, but we can't guarantee they'll sound the same. Sonos also sells this

6:56 combo as the premium immersive set with Ark Ultra. For this final sound test, we're locked in a dead heat. Both sound bars offer an immersive sound field with plenty of height and width when playing back Atmos content. each feature four upfiring Atmos drivers with two located in the bar and two in the satellites. The main takeaway here is that if you're considering picking up the standalone Arc Ultra soundbar, expect to lose a lot of verticality in your audio. The Ara satellites do a lot of leg work here to bring Atmos content to life, so don't skimp on them. As we mentioned previously, both bars come with room correction functions. Samsung's Spacefitit Sound Pro and Sonos's True Play are fairly hands-off, so there's no need to run around with a tape measure like some mad architect. The only caveat

7:43 here with the True Play is that you'll miss out on the full calibration if you have an Android phone. The full version is only available with iOS devices. When it comes to sound customization options, Samsung takes the crown. On top of the usual channel level, bass and treble adjustments, and commonplace modes like speech enhancement and night mode, the Q90F gives you a graphic EQ and presets. Plus, there's a few ways to integrate everything from your Samsung TV to your Samsung music frame for even more playback channels. Meanwhile, in Sonos Land, it's worth considering that you can use your A300 speakers as multi-room Bluetooth speakers or as a stereo pair. Heck, you can even bring one of them into your bathroom for when you have people over to play calming whale sounds while the other plays music in the

8:29 living room. So, we're reaching the end of the road for this video, which is also a fork in the road for you. But to make this much more of a choice, you need to have taken the Sonos path already. The immersive set with Ark Ultra makes a lot of sense if you've already got an Aera speaker or two kicking about, which can help offset some of the cost. At the time of filming, the full immersive set is around $1,000 more than the Samsung Q990F. For that kind of price difference, you'd expect fireworks, maybe in the form of a Nakamichi style dual sub setup. But instead, you're stuck with no HDMI in ports, no DTSX support, and a distinct lack of sound customization options. Sure, the Sonos has a wider stereo sound stage and a punchier bass by default,

9:16 and this might be exactly your cup of tea. You might also enjoy its spelt and premium design, or the fact that Sona's products are somewhat of a status symbol. But most of us would happily take the expanded format support, better connectivity, and flexible sound adjustments that come with Samsung. We'd also have a little extra spending money for Blu-rays and popcorn, or to start saving for the Q90G next year. Anyway, that's all for today, folks. Let us know in the comments below if there's a bar out there that's better value than the Q90F. Until next time, I'm Alex from ratings.com where we help you find the best product for your needs. Bye. The Samsung does have a slight edge though with its chcast

10:04 compatibility. The Samsung does have a slight edge though with its Chrome Oh my god, why can't they say this? Chcast chcast compatibility. Here we are.