Samsung HW-S60B/S61B Soundbar Review

The Samsung HW-S60B is a sleek standalone soundbar that's designed to rival the Sonos Beam (Gen 2). It loses the Samsung HW-S60A's fabric exterior in favor of a metal grille that covers the front and sides. Physical buttons are located on top. Inputs are tucked under the bar, but you can still access them if you choose to mount the bar to your wall. The Samsung HW-S61B retains the same aesthetics, but it's all-white instead.

While this soundbar doesn't come with a dedicated subwoofer, you can purchase a compatible model from the manufacturer separately.

This setup doesn't include satellites, either. Again, the manufacturer sells some compatible models separately.

This compact soundbar has an even smaller footprint than the Samsung HW-S60A. It'll fit between the legs of most 55" TV stands. Since it isn't very tall, it won't block your TV screen, either.

You can mount this soundbar to your wall, too. Since the brackets are included, you don't need to purchase them separately.

This bar has a great build quality. Overall, it feels solid and durable. The metal grilles on the front and the sides help to protect the drivers inside, giving the bar a much more premium feel than the previous Samsung HW-S60A, which uses fabric mesh. Since the Samsung HW-S61B has the same design but in a different color, we expect it to be just as durable in its build.

• User manual
• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Power cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Power Adapter (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• 2x mounting brackets
• Mounting Template with screws (2) and holder-screws (2)

The Samsung HW-S60B has a satisfactory stereo frequency response. Out-of-the-box, it offers a balanced sound profile overall, especially in the mid range, where most voices and lead instruments reproduce. As a result, it's suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. There's even a graphic EQ available to customize its performance while in 'Standard' mode. With the other preset modes, you get access to bass and treble adjustments. As a standalone bar, it can't reproduce as much thump and rumble in the low-bass. It's especially noticeable with bass-heavy music genres like EDM, as well as more intense scenes in movies and television. If you're a bass lover, you might want to consider improving its performance by adding on a separate subwoofer sold by the manufacturer.

If you prefer a more neutral sound with stereo content, we recommend sticking with the bar's default settings.

The bar offers a decent stereo soundstage performance. Its soundstage is perceived to be a little more than the bar itself, but of course, the bar isn't very wide to begin with. Its focus is okay, but sound effects on the edges of the soundstage seem a bit more processed and forced rather than coming off as clear and real.

The bar has a fair stereo dynamics performance. It gets loud, so despite its small size, it can fill larger and more open spaces with sound. However, when you push it to max volume, you notice some compression in the mix.

The Samsung HW-S60B has a good stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. As with most soundbars, there's a slight jump in distortion when you push the bar to max volume. Still, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content, especially at such low levels.

Thanks to its discrete center channel, this bar offers a great center performance. The discrete center is designed to improve vocal reproduction, so it's easy to follow along with dialogue in your favorite movies and TV shows. The frequency response on this channel is quite balanced, too, especially in the mid range, where most voices are reproduced. As a result, they're clear and accurate in the mix.

The Samsung HW-S60B has a middling surrounds performance. With 5.1 content like Dolby Digital, it relies on side-firing drivers to simulate a phantom surround localization in the space around you. It provides some width, but sound effects don't seem as clear or real as they do with discrete surround speakers. Audio seems like it's coming from a speaker placed in front of you rather than from all around you. If you want to improve the bar's surround performance, you can always add compatible speakers from the manufacturer separately.

Unlike the Samsung HW-S60A, this soundbar supports height content like Dolby Atmos. It downmixes this immersive content into surround sound to play it back, though. Given the lack of bass on these channels, sound effects are a bit bright and piercing in the mix.

Subjectively, we found that the bar offers a good overall sound with Atmos. Despite the bar's small size, it can simulate some width in the soundstage, so sound effects stretch into the space around your couch. Given the lack of up-firing drivers, it's not much surprise that it doesn't replicate as much height in the soundstage. Plus, the lack of low-bass is noticeable, especially in action-packed scenes. Still, it provides a solid upgrade over your existing TV speakers.

The Samsung HW-S60B has a fantastic selection of sound enhancement features. Compared to last year's model, it comes with a room correction tool called SpaceFit Sound— it automatically calibrates the bar based on your room's unique acoustics. There are different EQ presets to help you customize its sound, including Standard, Adaptive Sound, DTS Virtual:X, Music, and Game. With the Standard preset, you can access a 7-band graphic EQ to customize the bar's sound across the range. With the other presets, you can adjust the bass and treble to get the sound you want. There's also an Active Voice Amplifier tool that enhances dialogue in the mix, which is handy.

Samsung's Q-Symphony feature is available with this soundbar. It's similar to what you find with other manufacturers of both TVs and soundbars in that you can pair the bar to a compatible Samsung TV for a more immersive sound. We found that Q-Symphony increases the volume a bit, but it doesn't hugely impact the overall sound quality.

You can connect the bar to your TV using HDMI or Optical. There's even an HDMI cable included in the box for your convenience. The micro-USB port is for servicing the bar, but it doesn't support audio playback.

The bar has great audio format support via ARC. You can playback many common audio formats, including Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital. You're likely to find both on streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, it doesn't support some lossless formats like Dolby TrueHD.

The bar supports both DTS and Dolby Digital over Optical. Dolby Digital is more commonly found on streaming platforms, but you may run into DTS content on Blu-ray discs, too.

This bar has a great latency performance. Since it has low latency, the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see on your screen. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, though.

The Samsung HW-S60B has incredible wireless playback connectivity. It's easy to stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar, especially if you have an Apple device since there's AirPlay support.

While the bar doesn't have a display, there are some lights on the front of the bar that flash when you change the volume. Plus, a red light turns on to let you know when the voice assistant's microphone is muted.

On top of the bar, there are a few physical buttons. You can use them to change the input, adjust the volume, and mute the microphone for the voice assistant.

The remote is quite simple and easy to navigate. The Samsung SmartThings app also acts as a remote, which lets you use your mobile device to control the bar.

This soundbar offers built-in support for Amazon Alexa, so you can control it with your voice instead of using the remote. If you already own a Google Assistant-enabled device, you can also connect it to the bar to use that assistant instead.