Samsung HW-S60D

The Samsung HW-S60D is a slim, all-in-one soundbar with no separate subwoofer. It is designed for rooms where a subwoofer would be unwelcome or impossible: a flat, a bedroom, or a living room where floor space is already spoken for.

That is a real category, and it is often badly served. A single slim bar cannot produce deep bass, but a well-tuned one produces clear speech and a wide sound, which is what most people actually want from television audio.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can put it in a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

Television sound does not go through Apple Home at all. That arrives over HDMI ARC or optical from the television, and the soundbar’s own remote and app control the modes and the volume.

Before you buy

Be clear about the trade. If you watch films for the impact, this is the wrong bar and you want one with a subwoofer, such as the HW-Q700C.

If your main complaint is that you cannot hear the dialogue, a slim bar with good speech processing fixes that, and a subwoofer would not.

Q-Symphony works only with a Samsung television.

Specifications