Samsung Sound+ Premium Review
Good sound and design, but doesn't live up to other models in the price range
Price:
$500 List | $396 at Amazon
Pros: Good sound quality, user friendly, nice aesthetics
Cons: Relatively expensive, quite heavy
Manufacturer: Samsung
Pros: Good sound quality, user friendly, nice aesthetics
Cons: Relatively expensive, quite heavy
Manufacturer: Samsung
By Max Mutter and Steven Tata ⋅ Feb 20, 2019
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Our Verdict
The Samsung Sound+ Premium performs quite well in every capacity, providing good sound, an intuitive user experience, and aesthetics that can easily blend into any living room. However, there are other models the perform as well or better for the same price or less. For example, if you're willing to spend this much on a soundbar we would definitely recommend the deeper bass and superior clarity of the Sonos Beam instead of the Sound+ Premium. Additionally, if you're on a budget, the much less expensive Yamaha YAS-108 sounds just as good and is just as user firendly, yet is only half the price.
Compare to Similar Products
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Samsung Sound+ Premium is a great soundbar, but we feel it is a bit overpriced, as you can get better sound quality for the same price, or comparable sound quality for a much lesser price.
Performance Comparison
There are very few weak points in the Samsung Sound+ Premium's performance. It earned above-average marks in all of our tests, putting it towards the top of our overall scoreboard.
Sound Quality
The Samsung Sound+ Premium offers a very good listening experience, but isn't quite in the top echelon of soundbars.
Overall, the Sound+ Premium's sound is supremely well balanced, with relatively deep and resonant bass offering a solid foundation for fairly crisp and clear treble. In fact, it offers some of the most powerful bass tones we've found in a soundbar that does not utilize an external subwoofer. That being said, the Yamaha YAS-108 has a similar level of sound quality, if anything lacking only a minute level of clarity when compared to the Sound+ Premium, and is only half the price. The Sonos Beam, which costs the same as the Sound+ Premium, offers the same level of bass power with noticeably better clarity.
The Sound+ Premium's sound quality is quite good, but falls short of elite.
Ease of Use
The Sound+ Premium keeps most things simple, resulting in a straightforward user experience. It also offers some more advanced feature for those that want them.
When it comes to setup, the Sound+ Premium is pretty much as simple as plug and go. It offers optical, aux, and HDMI input options. It also has an HDMI through port in case your TV only has one HDMI port. This lets you plug your device (cable box, Apple TV, etc.) into the soundbar, via HDMI, and then plug the soundbar into the TV via another HDMI. You can also connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. We found Bluetooth pairing to be nearly instant and seamless, but Wi-Fi takes a bit more work.
The Sound+ Premium offers pretty much every port you could ask for.
For connecting via Wi-Fi, you must download the Wireless Audio: Multiroom app. Annoyingly the manual tells you to look for the Samsung Multiroom app, which as far as we can tell does not actually exist. This then allows you to wireless connect your soundbar to other Samsung products, and allows you to stream certain music services directly to the soundbar over your Wi-Fi network. If you have an Amazon Alexa product (such as an Echo Dot), the Sound+ Premium does have plug and play support.
The Sound+ Premium's remote hs basic controls and EQ adjustments.
However, we found neither Wi-Fi streaming or pairing an Alexa product to be particularly easy. If either of those features are important to you, we would highly recommend getting the Sonos Beam instead. It has Alexa built right in, and Sonos's Wi-Fi streaming and associated app are a bit more user-friendly.
Sound Customization
The Sound+ Premium does not offer any independent EQ controls, but does offer a number of sound presets. These presets include modes optimized for sports, movies, clear voice, music, along with a standard mode. This will likely be plenty of adjustability for most people, but if you're one that constantly cranks the bass up on every audio device you own, you may be disappointed at the lack of a standard EQ adjustment (however, most times you can make those kinds of adjustments right on your TV, or whichever device you have connected to the soundbar).
Design/Style
We think the Sound+ Premium's design gets close to the ideal for a soundbar. Simple, clean lines and a monochromatic black exterior make it about as inconspicuous as possible. This simple scheme makes it unlikely to clash with your living room, no matter the decor.
Value
The Samsung Sound+ Premium is a good soundbar that can't quite keep up with the competition. For the same $400 the Sound+ Premium will set you back, you can get the better sounding and more fully featured Sonos Beam. You could also spend half as much and get a similar level of sound quality from the Yamaha YAS-108. While we like the Sound+ Premium, we feel it isn't the best way to spend your money.
Conclusion
The Samsung Sound+ Premium offers good all-around performance, but fails to stack up against some of the similarly priced competition.
— Max Mutter and Steven Tata