Samsung HW-H750 review

The HW-H750 is Samsung’s latest top-end soundbar. Unlike its cheaper brethren, it’s a 4.1-channel system with a vacuum tube amplifier, and the valves are visible on the front of the soundbar to make sure you don’t forget them. According to Samsung, the vacuum tube amplifier is meant to provide warmer, richer and more realistic sound, as well as minimise ambient noise and distortion.

This naturally adds a hefty premium to the price of the HW-H750, but the sound quality is truly excellent. The soundbar’s four 40W speakers and DTS and Dolby Digital codecs produced a full body of rich and detailed sound during our testing and dialogue was clear at all times. The flutes, bagpipes and choral sections of the How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack, for instance, were equally well-balanced against the deeper bass and the thundering percussion, and everything from the main melody to the supporting instruments behind it was crystal clear. We were particularly pleased with how the HW-H750 handled busier, more staccato sections of the score.

Dialogue in Avatar was equally clear, although we did feel that overarching sound effects and background noises were given precedence in the overall mix. However, both treble and bass can be adjusted if you want slightly warmer sounding audio.

The wireless subwoofer was equally impressive. It’s pretty large, measuring 305x305x401mm, so you’ll need a fair amount of space to store it, but it automatically pairs with the soundbar. Just like the soundbar, the subwoofer has a massive 160W at its disposal, providing plenty of thumping bass during films. As mech suits and helicopters clunked and whirred to life in Avatar, the extra bass created a palpable atmosphere that went way beyond other soundbars we’ve tested recently. We never felt overwhelmed by it either, even on the subwoofer’s highest setting.

Of course, a four channel soundbar sounds a little counter-intuitive on paper, as traditional 4.1 systems have dedicated speakers to provide proper surround sound. The HW-H750 didn’t really accomplish this in our large test room, as all the sound was clearly coming from the soundbar in front of us and not bouncing round behind us. Turning the Surround Sound setting on didn’t make too much of a difference either, but we wouldn’t say this necessarily detracts from the overall quality of the audio.

The HW-H750 has several sound effect modes, too, but we felt that the Music mode stripped away a lot of the bass found in Standard and Cinema. This made rock music and even some pop songs sound a little thin, so we’d recommend sticking to Standard for general music listening and Cinema for films. There’s also Sports and Voice, which accentuate ambient noise and vocals respectively.

Connecting other devices to the HW-H750 is easy. There’s NFC and Bluetooth support for your phone or laptop, and it’s also compatible with Samsung’s Multiroom Link app, so it can connect with other wireless Samsung speakers such as the Samsung M5 (see Reviews, Shopper 321) to create a wireless surround sound system. If you have a 2013 or 2014 Samsung TV, you can connect it to the HW-H750 wirelessly over Bluetooth.

Even if you don’t have a Samsung TV, there are still plenty of ports for connecting your devices. There are two HDMI ports; one is a standard port for connecting a games console or Blu-ray player, and the other is an audio-return channel (ARC)-compatible HDMI output that lets your TV send audio back to the HW-750 so that it can be played through the speaker system. This reduces the number of wires coming out of your TV, but we were a little disappointed the HW-H750 doesn’t support Ultra HD video pass-through. You’ll also find an Ethernet cable and an optical audio S/PDIF input in addition to the HDMI ports.

At the back of the soundbar is a USB port for playing music files from a USB flash drive, and there’s also an auxiliary audio input. The HW-H750 supports all the major audio formats, including MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, FLAC and AC files.

We particularly like how the HW-750’s LED menu display automatically switches between the top and front edge of the soundbar depending on where you position it. This means you can easily mount it to a wall or lay it flat on a table, which makes it more flexible than cheaper soundbars with a fixed display.

The only thing to bear in mind is that the HW-750’s soundbar is large, which makes it less suitable for use with smaller TVs. It measures 943mm across and 123mm deep, and it was almost the same size as our 47in, so it’s definitely better suited to larger sets.

The Samsung HW-H750 is an outstanding soundbar and subwoofer combo, but its high price and lack of true surround sound means that it just misses out on a top score. Still, if you’re looking for one of the best soundbars money can buy and have a large enough TV, the HW-H750 is a great choice.