Sound quality: Samsung's HW-R550 delivers sound quality that falls in the Good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. In the Standard sound mode the bass has good impact, but is slightly prominent and boomy, and the deepest bass is lacking. The midrange is fairly even, but is somewhat hazy and grainy and a touch edgy. The treble is fairly extended and a bit sizzly. This model does a so-so job of recovering room ambience (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded) and sounds somewhat congested overall. With stereo program material sound field extends a bit above and not much beyond the width of the speaker array, and lacks front-to-back depth. The other Sound mode settings made the sound field somewhat wider and taller but also made the midrange sound harsh with other effects that ranged from making it louder and/or nasal and/or echoey. In the Standard sound mode with Dolby digital and DTS multi-channel program material the sound image extends higher, and depending on the program material, may extend past the sides of the soundbar, but still lacks depth. The other Sound mode settings had a similar effect with multi-channel program material as with stereo program material, but not as pronounced. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the HDMI, optical, USB, BT, and analog inputs. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Very Good overall. Setup: HDMI CEC (Samsung calls it Anynet+) setup is quick and straight forward. When an HDMI connection is not used the soundbar can still be controlled by TV remotes from Samsung and other major brands; activation and deactivation of this feature is quick and easy, but not intuitive so easy to follow instructions included with unit have to be referred to. The system comes with an optical cable for TV connection, HDMI or stereo analog cables must be purchased separately if you want or need either of those to connect your TV. Ease of Use: This model can work seamlessly with many TVs - it can respond to the volume and mute commands from the remotes of HDMI CEC compatible TVs when connected via the HDMI ARC ports with and HDMI cable. It can also be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of the remotes of many TVs from major brands including Samsung. Its own physical remote is uncluttered and has well labeled controls. An app remote that operates via Bluetooth can also be downloaded onto Android mobile devices; we found the app to be easy to use and glitch-free. The soundbar console's power, source, and volume controls consist of raised symbols that are adequately sized but are black on a black background on the right side of the soundbar where they are not easy to see and may be hard to access. The console lacks a mute control, but if it is muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The display is momentary and can be seen from the typical listening position. It shows power status when first turned on or off, source selection, numeric volume level, mute status, and the DSP effects mode.
Features setup and ease of use: Good overall. Setup: Bluetooth pairing is very easy - if no Bluetooth device has previously been paired or the paired device does not have Bluetooth activated the unit is automatically in pairing mode once the remote's dedicated Bluetooth pairing button has been pressed. An Android mobile device Bluetooth remote app is available for use with this soundbar; the app download instructions are provided on-line but not with unit; the instructions with unit refer to the on-line instructions. Ease of Use: The HW-R550's physical remote is uncluttered and has controls that are well labeled. An app remote that operates via Bluetooth can be downloaded onto Android mobile devices. We found it to be easy to use and glitch-free. The soundbar console's power, source, and volume controls consist of raised symbols that are adequately sized but are black on a black background on the right side of the soundbar where they are not easy to see and may be hard to access. The console lacks a mute control, but if it is muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The display is momentary and can be seen from the typical listening position. It shows power status when first turned on or off, source selection, numeric volume level, mute status, and the DSP effects mode. The console has inputs for HDMI ARC digital video/audio and optical digital audio connections. The optical input is provided as an alternate connection for TVs that lack HDMI ARC, not as a separate connection for another device. These two inputs are covered under one source and the soundbar uses on or the other depending on what's connected. If both are connected HDMI ARC TV connection takes priority. If you switch from the Bluetooth source to another source and then back again you have to manually re-connect the Bluetooth source device.
