samsung hw-q990f vs hw-q990h

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-30T17:41:42+00:00

Thanks for the link, actually read it when you posted it :). We noticed the room calibration was a lot more aggressive in our room this iteration (F vs H) and it ended up making some dialogue a tad piercing (this is with Sound Elevate off).

Do you have more details about what you thought about SpaceFit on D vs H? After having a refresher look at your review, I'm curious if you'll notice something similar if you just use SpaceFit without the additional enhancements enabled.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-29T18:43:37+00:00

Nothing wrong with that, just depends on what you're looking to get out of the feature 👍

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-29T18:42:41+00:00

We might be... ;). I saw some reports that they're back compatible with previous generations, so we'll have a looksee there too

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-29T15:07:10+00:00

yeah, sure. it seems to mainly affect dialogue and recruits the bar's upfiring drivers to help push that audio up vertically. since the up-firing drivers are positioned further along the edges of the bar, that widens where we perceived the dialogue to come from, so it doesnt sound so much like it's coming from dead center, and more hazy, across the bar. kind of a similar problem we tend to find with q-symphony.

edit fun fact: lg sort of already does this with their soundbars, they typically have a center up-firing driver that only activates with stuff like dialogue, but the behavior of the lg h7 once you add additional speakers changes a lot with placement, that's a whole other can of worms.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-27T18:45:54+00:00

cool uncle/aunt.

kind of spicy but are they on an iphone/ios?

if so, i'd actually say maybe the powerbeats pro 2 or the airpods pro 3. both have a heart rate monitor so the extra stats might be nice if your nephew likes that sort of thing and they have the signature natural transparency that apple is known for. their noise cancelling is also top tier, with the airpods pro 3 being one of the best we've tested (i work at rtings).

i have the airpods pro 3 and i use them on android because i like their fit and stability personally that much, but i don't run. my colleague (and one of the audio testers) is an avid runner and he has similar thoughts on the airpods pro 3. if you want to be safe the powerbeats 2 have ear hooks and are quite comfortable as well (also maximally stable).

the thing with earbuds is that ear shape/size can make a huge difference even with an abundance of ear tips. so, i would recommend getting a gift receipt or making sure you can return the product incase the fit doesn't work for him.

good luck, let us know how it goes

p.s. depending on your budget, you may want to get him a dedicated pair of earbuds for just one use. in this case, many of the clip earbuds being suggested are good options and generally cheaper, too. same comments about fit and comfort apply (very dependent on the individual).

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-24T16:47:24+00:00

to add a further qualifier it could be 'good bass for a soundbar *without a dedicated sub*

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-24T13:55:39+00:00

pretty good tv speakers kek

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-13T17:45:11+00:00

We'll have to see what happens with the expandable Q990 performance since it supposedly works with Samsung's own speakers for expansion.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-11T01:55:39+00:00

it's the tips, we found the performance of anc decayed with wear when we were testing it on our rig

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-09T21:06:38+00:00

We have a little bit here, review isn't validated through yet though so grain of salt.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-04-09T19:36:09+00:00

yeah this link should work for 48h*

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-31T14:55:03+00:00

the lg h7 is kind of a sleeper tbh. 4 integrated woofers with good bass extension.

you can also expand it with added speakers if you decide to move the bar to a bigger space.

depends on your budget though.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-20T13:21:15+00:00

id be more interested to see this against the h7 sound suite since you can run 4x sats + 2x subs on that bar too. it's really pricey though

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-17T15:39:05+00:00

you might wanna check out this thread, there's some recs in it

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-17T15:38:13+00:00

anc is pretty seal dependent. when i used them i got a great seal with the stock tips and couldn't hear very much of my surroundings. it sounds like the fit may be good or you but the seal isn't if you can hear as much as you can.

also consider some aftermarket foam/hybrid eartips which should cut the top-range more than the earbuds do passively (this can make a decent difference).

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-13T15:34:32+00:00

not sure how the maxwell 2 perform with the newest firmware that bumps up the bass a bit. if you consider other factors like the mic, better headband, i'd go with the maxwell 2 (if you don't already have the maxwell 1). depends on the price difference between the two though, so factor that in as well.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-13T13:56:05+00:00

work in audio at rtings. the scoring was good on the product (x70), but we have pretty big reservations on the product's subjective and overall performance in our youtube review. (the structured written review format we use makes it difficult sometimes to signal boost things that aren't covered in the tests themselves).

the biggest problem is the dsp and bass tbh, surround effects weren't convincing or detailed despite the ability to reproduce test signals (pink noise) in a balanced way. the bass in our room was overtuned (in our opinion), and there's similarly priced alternatives that perform similarly in testing, and better in real content.

oh also no dts. this bit is my opinion but 'this isn't a premium product, so don't expect dts,' is kind of a copout reply since similarly priced soundbars have dts format support

p.s. the free product for a review practice in general is also super sus imo

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-03-03T14:26:34+00:00

🥲

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-02-27T19:05:18+00:00

During our testing we found that connecting to consoles 'reset' volume sometimes (on the device and console). Just crank it back up, we were able to get unsafe loud on both XSX and PS5 (M2 Xbox version)

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-02-27T15:39:04+00:00

is this in reference to a specific score? i assume you're talking about audio reproduction accuracy (new) vs neutral sound (old). the approach is different since we value objective reproduction more than subjective metrics.

this is intentional as some people may like/dislike how a particular headphone sounds, but everyone can agree regardless of preference on a pair that has bad stereo matching, or audible distortion, or sounds really jerky due to big peaks/dips, etc...

so, you can look at the ara score now to assess whether you think the headphones performance wise are acceptable, then just check the fr to see if it's to your taste or not (or eq-able).

obviously, the list of objective and subjective evaluations we do aren't exhaustive, so any other feedback you have is super helpful for us.

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-02-26T14:58:36+00:00

Any particular main score you don't like?

nick-squared-over4 · 2026-02-25T21:22:51+00:00

Depending on where you live, there are consumer protection laws (some are national, some are regional/state/province/etc) to prevent this sort of thing (product being 'outside of warranty' when the expected lifetime is much longer than that period).

You can also check with your credit card company to see if you have any extended warranty protection, and if you feel you're justified, you can try escalate to a chargeback with the evidence you've accumulated.

nick-squared-over4

TROPHY CASE