If you’ve read our best Dolby Atmos soundbars guide you’ll likely be keeping an eye on the Sony Theatre Bar 9 and Samsung HW-Q990D, and for good reason. They’re both award winning, five-star products capable of delivering truly immersive home cinema audio.
If you are in the market for a new premium soundbar and like the look of them we also have some good news: they’re both heavily discounted right now. You can buy the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 on Amazon for £999, a £400 saving on its regular price.
The Samsung HW-Q990D has also been discounted, selling for £919 on Amazon – marking an even heftier £780 saving on its standard price.
The only downside is that with both being so positively reviewed by What Hi-Fi? you may justifiably be suffering from a paralysis of choice picking between the two deals. If so, we have some simple advice: most of you will be better off going with the Samsung package.
This isn’t a dig at the Sony soundbar. But there’s a reason, despite both being award-winners, we gave the Product of the Year trophy to the Samsung HW-Q990D. The unit comes with two surround sound satellite speakers and a subwoofer.
On top of that the units are wireless, so you don’t need to worry about cables ruining your lounge’s feng shui. This means they can offer “true” surround sound in a way the Sony, and any other basic soundbar without satellites, can’t.
The Q990D also sounds pretty awesome in its own right, hence our reviewers’ conclusion:
“It’s a hugely compelling package overall, and while it’s certainly not cheap, it is good value compared with alternative systems that offer similar specs and features. If you want something approaching ‘proper’ Atmos sound without buying an AV amplifier and twelve individual speakers, it has to be on your shortlist.”
The only caveat is that, if for whatever reason you can’t fit the satellites, or simply don’t want the added clutter in your lounge the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is still excellent and does have one key selling point – it offers slightly more height with virtual Atmos than the Samsung. So while holistically we’d recommend the HW-Q990D the Bravia is still an excellent choice for some buyers with more specific priorities.
MORE:
These are the best surround sound systems we’ve reviewed
We rate the best soundbars
Our picks of the best AVRs
