As televisions become more aesthetically pleasing every year, the last thing we want to do is clutter up the living space with big unsightly boxes…
One thing that is becoming more and more important is how our home entertainment systems actually look inside a living space. People don’t want unsightly cables everywhere. When we choose an additional sound booster for our TVs, this can become quite an issue.
This is why Samsung have developed the new HWMS6501 soundbar. Although it’s designed to be partnered with a Samsung curved TV (due to it being a curved soundbar), this can be used alongside any TV for a modern, atheistically pleasing, futuristic look.
You’ll notice it’s quite a large soundbar, measuring at 1160mm x 80mm x 168mm, however there is a reason for this. Built into its large premium design are 3 tweeters and 6 mid-range drivers. These drivers give off enough bass to do without the need for an additional subwoofer. Due to the curved design, sound is dispersed evenly throughout the room. The central speaker has been designed and fine tuned to deliver crisp dialogue to ensure speech isn’t overpowered by background noise.
Samsung have introduced something called Distortion Cancelling for this year’s soundbars and is one of the features of the HWMS6501. The amazing thing Distortion Cancelling does, is it eliminates distortion before it happens. Samsung claims that their design can predict the distortion and cancel it out before it even reaches your ears. Maybe Samsung’s recent acquisition of sound giants Harman Kardon has something to do with this.
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Proof is in the pudding… It’s definitely an improvement on last year’s range in terms of clarity and detail. As I play Mad Max: Fury Road, the sound dispersion is incredible. The dialogue is clearer, especially during some of the action scenes, and you can still hear the screams and anguish alongside the insane engines and background noise that feature throughout the film. You definitely get a better sense of direction but the lack of a subwoofer hurts it a touch in my opinion. It would be nice to “feel” it a bit more, especially if you’re going to have that proper home theatre experience at home. But as a one-box solution, it certainly is impressive. There are rumours of an additional subwoofer coming so watch this space.
I’m excited to stick a bit of music through it as this soundbar supports hi-res audio. Again, it proves to be a vast improvement over last year’s range. The vocals are stand out clear for me. I try a bit of Adele just to see how good the vocals can be through it. It handles the music superbly and her voice holds true throughout the test. There’s certainly little or no distortion as you crank it up to higher volumes. It’s a well-rounded sound that’s easy to listen to.
Connecting your smart phone or tablet is easy via the Bluetooth connection. There’s an HDMI input and one output which supports HDCP 2.2 and supports ARC from the TV. Plus there’s a 3.5mm analogue input for any older devices you may have.
There’s another benefit to pairing this with a 2017 Samsung TV, as if you really hate cables you can stream audio from the TV wirelessly to the soundbar. I’d always recommend using the ARC or standard optical connection but it’s handy just in case wiring isn’t an option. Again with a compatible Samsung TV you’re also able to control the soundbar with your Samsung TV remote. This just tidies everything up if you don’t like having remote controls everywhere. I know I don’t.
All in all it’s a good soundbar from Samsung and should be popular. It definitely works best when paired with its Samsung TV counterpart to get the most out of all its features. It’s a nice looking soundbar in a silver finish and Black is available with the HWMS6500. If you want to come and have a listen then pop down to your local Richer Sounds who will be more than happy to demonstrate what it can do.
Click to find out more about the Samsung HWMS6501.
Author: Bradley, Plymouth store
