comments:
Well first off, "cable" sometimes sucks and plays as stereo on a lot of channels so that's probably not the best test even though we can still enjoy and love our Spectrum. Secondly Q Symphony.... What to say about this.... If you enjoy it that's fine but it's a bit of a marketing gimmick that can cause issues as well. It uses your TV speakers to get more sound out of your experience but the issue with that is the soundbar has a certain high quality sound signature and your TV has a much lower quality sound signature. Why would you want those 2 different sound signatures playing at the same time? Samsung was just getting you to buy the same pair of TV and soundbar but different sounds can cause an echo like sound because they don't match. Having this mode on causes the TV to have to analyze the audio and "optimizes" it to make it work, but there is a side effect... this processing matrixes standard dialogue tracks and erroneously bleeds them into the rear channels. If you care about real high quality audio, turn this feature off and never look back. If you got too used to it, your mind will adjust. So I say turn that gimmick feature off because the original sound is being heavily edited. Sound modes... These are for you to decide because they should all work correctly and the processing is better. For example I always use Surround Mode at all times and dialogue doesn't play in the rears on 5.1 and above content. Dialogue does come in the rears on Stereo though! And I understand this and am fine with it. Auto vs Passthrough? Auto will have the TV decode the sound and send it to the soundbar, passthrough will send the raw audio file to the soundbar for it to decode it instead. Does this matter? Well the TV isn't fully meant to decode super high quality audio, it was made with TV speakers. Your soundbar literally has a much higher quality decoder and actual methods to keep any interference at bay, like better SNR then the TV can handle, basically you paid for it and it's included inside the soundbar. So to test this all out, remember, you can hit the info button twice on the soundbar remote and see if something is Stereo PCM, Dolby Atmos, multi-channel or whatever. Also make sure any virtual surround is off, not the surround mode.... But "virtual". I say go on Netflix and test Ozark or Breaking Bad or something and see what it does. Stranger Things is a good test but note... Vecna or monsters can talk or growl through all channels. Monsters in movies sometimes has a more surrounding voice, this is normal and immersive. Another thing I noticed from your picture, Reddit compressed it so I can't tell... But remember the outside speakers are supposed to face outwards! Not inwards! The left rear speaker for sure is so close to the wall that it may not bounce off the wall properly. They are technically mean to go right by your couch at an angle. So basically rear left on the left of your rug at a slight angle in like it is now just closer and the rear right is already in a good spot but you could probably bring it in slightly away from the wall, literally a couple inches if it's even needed at all. Look At These product pictures and you can see some examples how they recommend the rear speakers to be so that the sound can bounce around the room.