Samsung’s best new soundbar adds a much-wanted feature gamers will love

Mike Lowe
·2 min read
Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar.
Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar.

With the world's largest technology show, CES 2024, coming to a close for this year, many of the best products I've seen on the show floor have been TVs. Samsung's anti-reflective S95D, for example, looks stunning. But there's one other product that will complement that telly just perfectly: the HW-Q990D soundbar.

And gamers will love it too. That's because the Q990D, which is the update on 2023's 5-star-awarded Q990C model, adds HDMI 2.1 (which lacked on the previous model) to enable 4K/120Hz passthrough that'll be ideal when mated with current-gen consoles such as the PS5 or Xbox Series X. That's a straight up win for Samsung's best soundbar in the range.

I got a glimpse of the Q990D soundbar at Samsung's First Look event in Las Vegas, which is where CES is held, and while it's always tricky to represent a sound product in a busy environment, it's still a clearly impressive product that's easily a contender for the best soundbars of 2024. Especially if you want true sonic immersion.

Samsung HW-990D
Samsung HW-990D

That's because the Q990D, like the 990C model before it, features a mass of channels across a number of speakers (as you can see in the picture embedded above). There's the main soundbar, a separate subwoofer, and two rear speakers, which output 11.1.4 channels of audio information. It's compatible with three-dimensional audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, to provide an epic object-based experience.

The design of the product hasn't changed at all, though, but there are some other new features to speak of in addition to that HDMI 2.1 change: there's Private Listening which uses closer-positioned rear speakers only to keep things quieter; Party Play is aimed at music, delivering a flatter mix across the speakers' balance. Minor changes rather than ground-moving, really.

I find Samsung soundbars are the best in the business, especially if you're looking for the best options specifically for Samsung TVs, as Q-Symphony is able to also sync your telly's speakers for an even more convincing audio height and on-screen accuracy. It's particularly impressive when gaming, too, as sounds will appear to emanate from their on-screen source – and that makes the HW-Q990D look like a winner (albeit a more expensive one compared to the 'C' model, which is currently on discount, as you can see in the widget below)...