New soundbar

Ayahuasca · 14 Mar 2025 at 09:10

You might be better off waiting for deals on the Q990F instead, as the sub looks to be much improved.

The Q990D is weird with pricing, the best deal on it was ages ago not long after launch when people were picking them up for £400-450 with a cashback offer. Everything recently has been at least £200 more than that.

ODuffer · 14 Mar 2025 at 09:11

You have some serious budgets for a soundbar! I went for a Creative Stage V2, perfect for my needs optical in, and a separate sub, and 'dialog mode'. (~£90)

Irish_Tom · 14 Mar 2025 at 10:35

Ayahuasca said:
You might be better off waiting for deals on the Q990F instead, as the sub looks to be much improved.

The Q990D is weird with pricing, the best deal on it was ages ago not long after launch when people were picking them up for £400-450 with a cashback offer. Everything recently has been at least £200 more than that.

Yeah, it will depend on how quickly the F drops in price and how much better the sub is.

I can accept a slightly worse sub at half the price. But if the full side-by-side reviews say the new sub completely blows the D out of the water, I could wait a bit and see if the F comes down.

Kanpai · 14 Mar 2025 at 17:08

Irish_Tom said:
But if the full side-by-side reviews say the new sub completely blows the D out of the water, I could wait a bit and see if the F comes down

I'd be very surprised too, the sub on the D is no slouch at all.

MOOGLEYS · 25 Mar 2025 at 12:43

I had a 990D and tbh was not overly impressed with the sound so sold it. I now have a 930D which I picked up cheap and I think it sounds better. The bass is much more of a thump than the 990D which was more of a whumph if that makes sense. It’s very noticeable in normal bass noises it’s hard to explain other than the bass on 930D feels tighter than the loose sounding 990D.

Ayahuasca · 25 Mar 2025 at 12:47

It may simply be a better fit for your room, as subwoofers can perform very differently depending on placement and room layout.

But when you look at the technical aspects of both, there's no reason why the 930D subwoofer should be better.

hornetstinger · 25 Mar 2025 at 12:50

Ayahuasca said:
It may simply be a better fit for your room, as subwoofers can perform very differently depending on placement and room layout.

But when you look at the technical aspects of both, there's no reason why the 930D subwoofer should be better.

soundbar subs are always going to be compromised. Small drivers, small cabinet, typically ported, not much power.

If they had subs with 15" 25kg driver, 1000W, ported to 20hz....people wouldn't accept that lol the size of a tabletop dishwasher

MOOGLEYS · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:00

Ayahuasca said:
It may simply be a better fit for your room, as subwoofers can perform very differently depending on placement and room layout.

But when you look at the technical aspects of both, there's no reason why the 930D subwoofer should be better.

More than likely I just found the 990 less precise maybe as the 930 is a smaller sub it’s a bit more reactive ? I’m not a big fan of heavy sub bass so could just be I prefer the sound of the 930.

MOOGLEYS · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:01

hornetstinger said:
soundbar subs are always going to be compromised. Small drivers, small cabinet, typically ported, not much power.

If they had subs with 15" 25kg driver, 1000W, ported to 20hz....people wouldn't accept that lol the size of a tabletop dishwasher

The 930 sub makes my pictures on the wall vibrate I would not want anymore…. lol

Ayahuasca · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:05

MOOGLEYS said:
More than likely I just found the 990 less precise maybe as the 930 is a smaller sub it’s a bit more reactive ? I’m not a big fan of heavy sub bass so could just be I prefer the sound of the 930.

Again, there's no reason the 930D should be more precise and you can tweak the settings on the 990D to pretty much eliminate all heavy sub-bass if that's the problem.

I've used both previous versions of the series, the 930C and the 990C, and the latter was a much better experience, which is why I bought one. Although it lives in quite a large living room so it was probably needed to fill the space.

hornetstinger · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:10

MOOGLEYS said:
The 930 sub makes my pictures on the wall vibrate I would not want anymore…. lol

Probably the biggest subs that's available in the UK. Don't know how it would fit through the doors...haha

SW-D8000PRO Dual 15" Ported (8000W Peak) Subwoofer - Subwoofers - ToneWinner UK | Audio Visual Product Reseller

Special introductory pricing! NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER. DELIVERY EXPECTED TO BE AROUND 4-6WEEKS. 5 YEAR WARRANTY AND 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE SW-D8000PRO is a dual 15 inches powered subwoofer bass speaker with 1500W (8,000W Peak) high power driving

tonewinner-kalibrate.co.uk

SW-D9000 18" Ported Subwoofer (9,000W Peak) - Subwoofers - ToneWinner UK | Audio Visual Product Reseller

Special introductory pricing! NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER. DELIVERY EXPECTED TO BE AROUND 8-10WEEKS. 5 YEAR WARRANTY AND 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE SW-D9000 is a 18 inches powered subwoofer bass speaker with 1500W (8,000W Peak) high power driving and cha

tonewinner-kalibrate.co.uk

I get bass performance down to about 10hz in my three sub

MOOGLEYS · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:40

I think that would make me feel unwell tbh…. I definitely don’t need more bass…

MOOGLEYS · 25 Mar 2025 at 13:43

Ayahuasca said:
Again, there's no reason the 930D should be more precise and you can tweak the settings on the 990D to pretty much eliminate all heavy sub-bass if that's the problem.

I've used both previous versions of the series, the 930C and the 990C, and the latter was a much better experience, which is why I bought one. Although it lives in quite a large living room so it was probably needed to fill the space.

Sub bass was not an issue just the normal bass if that makes sense. I may not be explaining it very well tbh.

Kill_Phil · 25 Mar 2025 at 15:57

Just be careful if you do pick up the 990d to turn off auto updates. The most recent firmware has been bricking units

R4z0r · 11 Apr 2025 at 12:05

Honestly the Sonos Beam is decent back for buck. I know that’s probably not a popular opinion amongst those really into their audio.

hornetstinger · 11 Apr 2025 at 13:01

R4z0r said:
Honestly the Sonos Beam is decent back for buck. I know that’s probably not a popular opinion amongst those really into their audio.

Not how they have handled the customers on the streamers, nope.

SAM81 · 29 Apr 2025 at 17:58

I'm also on the hunt for a new soundbar. My aging pioneer home theatre in a box 5.1 system just gave up the ghost, it's probably 15 years old tbf.

So I bought a hisense AX5100G, 170 quid, loads of decent reviews, I don't need anything earth shattering and assumed this would be leagues ahead of what I had before even if it's a cheap 5.1 soundbar.

My god I could not be more wrong. It was absolutely garbage. It was so tinny in comparison, I had to check multiple times if the sub was actually connected.

I guess my question is... What kind of price range am I looking at for something half decent? What would be a good option if my budget was say 500quid tops.

Ideally I'd like 5.1, not bothered about Dolby Atmos. Any recommendations?

TheVoice · 29 Apr 2025 at 18:35

SAM81 said:
I'm also on the hunt for a new soundbar. My aging pioneer home theatre in a box 5.1 system just gave up the ghost, it's probably 15 years old tbf.

So I bought a hisense AX5100G, 170 quid, loads of decent reviews, I don't need anything earth shattering and assumed this would be leagues ahead of what I had before even if it's a cheap 5.1 soundbar.

My god I could not be more wrong. It was absolutely garbage. It was so tinny in comparison, I had to check multiple times if the sub was actually connected.

I guess my question is... What kind of price range am I looking at for something half decent? What would be a good option if my budget was say 500quid tops.

Ideally I'd like 5.1, not bothered about Dolby Atmos. Any recommendations?

If you're not in a massive hurry it might be worth waiting to see if the deals on the Samsung Q930D and/or Q990D come back, they were both well under £500 after trade-in/cashback offers a few months ago; my Q990D cost me £406 in December. There's still stock of both out there including from Samsung directly, so it's likely they'll want to clear them as the 2025 replacements appear.

hornetstinger · 29 Apr 2025 at 18:38

SAM81 said:
I'm also on the hunt for a new soundbar. My aging pioneer home theatre in a box 5.1 system just gave up the ghost, it's probably 15 years old tbf.

So I bought a hisense AX5100G, 170 quid, loads of decent reviews, I don't need anything earth shattering and assumed this would be leagues ahead of what I had before even if it's a cheap 5.1 soundbar.

My god I could not be more wrong. It was absolutely garbage. It was so tinny in comparison, I had to check multiple times if the sub was actually connected.

I guess my question is... What kind of price range am I looking at for something half decent? What would be a good option if my budget was say 500quid tops.

Ideally I'd like 5.1, not bothered about Dolby Atmos. Any recommendations?

Decent 2.0 is possible for £500. Wiim amp + Wharfedale Diamond 9.0

Rather than going down soundbar

SAM81 · 29 Apr 2025 at 18:58

hornetstinger said:
Decent 2.0 is possible for £500. Wiim amp + Wharfedale Diamond 9.0

Rather than going down soundbar

I'd actually been considering getting rid of my Sonos for Wiim set up! I'll give this one some thought