S800B

Overview

HW-S800B is a 2022 Samsung soundbar that Samsung lists among its Ultra Slim soundbars. The bar is 1160 mm wide but only 38 mm high and 39.9 mm deep, and a wireless subwoofer comes in the box. It can be wall-mounted; the wall-mount brackets are included.

Samsung lists 10 speakers and 330 W of total power for the bar and subwoofer, including a centre speaker and up-firing speakers.

The TV connects over HDMI ARC; the bar has no optical input and no HDMI input. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are built in. Over Wi-Fi, the bar supports AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, and it has Amazon Alexa built in. Samsung also lists wireless Dolby Atmos and Q-Symphony, which plays sound through the TV speakers and the soundbar together on select 2021 and 2022 Samsung TVs connected over HDMI.

You can control it with the buttons on the bar, the included remote, the TV remote, or the SmartThings app on iOS and Android.

What the specs mean

• 3.1.2 speaker setup: three main channels (left, centre, right), one subwoofer channel and two height channels. The height channels come from up-firing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling, which is how the bar plays Dolby Atmos with sound from above.
• Wireless rear speakers (optional): Samsung lists the SWA-9500S rear speaker kit as compatible. It connects wirelessly to the bar.
• HDMI ARC, not eARC: the Audio Return Channel sends the TV's sound to the soundbar over the HDMI cable. The newer eARC adds high-bitrate formats such as Dolby TrueHD and uncompressed multichannel audio; Dolby TrueHD is not in this bar's format list.
• No HDMI passthrough: the bar has no HDMI input, so a console or streaming box connects to the TV, and the TV sends the sound on to the bar over HDMI ARC.
• Audio formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Digital Surround, DTS Virtual:X and 2-channel LPCM.