Samsung Sound+ Premium Review

The Samsung Sound+ Premium is a great soundbar, but we feel it is a bit overpriced, as you can get better sound quality for the same price, or comparable sound quality for a much lesser price.

Performance Comparison

There are very few weak points in the Samsung Sound+ Premium's performance. It earned above-average marks in all of our tests, putting it towards the top of our overall scoreboard.

Sound Quality

The Samsung Sound+ Premium offers a very good listening experience, but isn't quite in the top echelon of soundbars.

Overall, the Sound+ Premium's sound is supremely well balanced, with relatively deep and resonant bass offering a solid foundation for fairly crisp and clear treble. In fact, it offers some of the most powerful bass tones we've found in a soundbar that does not utilize an external subwoofer. That being said, the Yamaha YAS-108 has a similar level of sound quality, if anything lacking only a minute level of clarity when compared to the Sound+ Premium, and is only half the price. The Sonos Beam, which costs the same as the Sound+ Premium, offers the same level of bass power with noticeably better clarity.

Ease of Use

The Sound+ Premium keeps most things simple, resulting in a straightforward user experience. It also offers some more advanced feature for those that want them.

When it comes to setup, the Sound+ Premium is pretty much as simple as plug and go. It offers optical, aux, and HDMI input options. It also has an HDMI through port in case your TV only has one HDMI port. This lets you plug your device (cable box, Apple TV, etc.) into the soundbar, via HDMI, and then plug the soundbar into the TV via another HDMI. You can also connect via Bluetooth or WiFi. We found Bluetooth pairing to be nearly instant and seamless, but WiFi takes a bit more work.

For connecting via WiFi, you must download the Wireless Audio: Multiroom app. Annoyingly the manual tells you to look for the Samsung Multiroom app, which as far as we can tell does not actually exist. This then allows you to wireless connect your soundbar to other Samsung products, and allows you to stream certain music services directly to the soundbar over your WiFi network. If you have an Amazon Alexa product (such as an Echo Dot), the Sound+ Premium does have plug and play support.

However, we found neither WiFi streaming or pairing an Alexa product to be particularly easy. If either of those features are important to you, we would highly recommend getting the Sonos Beam instead. It has Alexa built right in, and Sonos's WiFi streaming and associated app are a bit more user-friendly.

Sound Customization

The Sound+ Premium does not offer any independent EQ controls, but does offer a number of sound presets. These presets include modes optimized for sports, movies, clear voice, music, along with a standard mode. This will likely be plenty of adjustability for most people, but if you're one that constantly cranks the bass up on every audio device you own, you may be disappointed at the lack of a standard EQ adjustment (however, most times you can make those kinds of adjustments right on your TV, or whichever device you have connected to the soundbar).

Design/Style

We think the Sound+ Premium's design gets close to the ideal for a soundbar. Simple, clean lines and a monochromatic black exterior make it about as inconspicuous as possible. This simple scheme makes it unlikely to clash with your living room, no matter the decor.

Value

The Samsung Sound+ Premium is a good soundbar that can't quite keep up with the competition. For the same $400 the Sound+ Premium will set you back, you can get the better sounding and more fully featured Sonos Beam. You could also spend half as much and get a similar level of sound quality from the Yamaha YAS-108. While we like the Sound+ Premium, we feel it isn't the best way to spend your money.

Conclusion