Back in April, I wrote at some length about Samsung’s N650, a soundbar/subwoofer combo designed with gamers specifically in mind. Sporting directional beam acoustics and some truly thumping bass, it makes for an incredibly solid way to experience the best of modern gaming’s rich soundscapes. I thought it was more than sufficient by out-of-box default standards, but there’s actually a way to make this setup function even better, minus one nagging drawback.
Enter the SWA-8500S, Samsung’s rear wireless speaker kit. The contents of the box are minimal and modest: A single wireless receiver, two tiny satellite speakers and several spools of speaker wire (this latter and somewhat unfortunate detail we’ll address in a bit). Setup is as simple as plugging in the power cord, attaching the speakers to the central unit via color-coded connections and finally pairing everything with your Samsung soundbar of choice (HW-M360, HW-M450, HW-M4500, HW-M550 are all supported in addition to the N650). I’ll hand it to Samsung here—a preschooler could probably get this thing up and running within seconds.
Once properly situated, these rear speakers sound surprisingly good. Like I’ve previously mentioned, the soundbar and subwoofer are excellent by themselves, but the 8500S is essentially the audio cherry on top. They do what you’d expect them to, which is provide understated, directional accents to your gaming sessions, alerting you to incoming “I’ve got you in my sights” in Overwatch and the operatic vomiting of your drunken shipmates in Sea of Thieves. In other words, it turns an auditory buffet into something akin to fine wine tasting. Sure, all the flavors were great before, but now you can appreciate the subtler notes. Or something like that.
The biggest drawback of this supposed wireless speaker kit is that the satellite speakers aren’t, well, wireless. Yes, the hub itself only needs AC draw to function and pairs wire-free to the N650 soundbar, which is nice and elegant. But the two rear speakers still need to be physically connected to the base station by way of spindly speaker wire, creating a whole surplus of messy electronic spaghetti. The reality is that you’re going to have to hide it all behind furniture or inside a wall if you want to achieve anything close to a clean aesthetic. It’s a bit of a letdown, seeing as the hardware itself is notably streamlined and sports a rather pleasing design.
I’m sure the price of this kit would be much higher if everything were completely and literally wireless, so in that sense, I suppose it’s a small concession to make for affordability. Also, I’m no sound engineer, but I would assume that independent rear speakers would possibly need their own individual power supplies to function, so having them wired probably eliminates that hiccup. Because in that case you’d just be dealing with an excess of power cords instead of speaker wire, so the solution becomes the lesser of two evils.
Do you absolutely need this kit to appreciate gaming on your Samsung soundbar? I’d say no, but adding it to your setup will only increase the quality of your experience. Yeah, there’s the wires to contend with, but for under $150, it’s a sleek solution that will maximize immersion and have you wondering how you got by without rear drivers.
Manufacturer: Samsung
MSRP: $129.99
Disclaimer: Samsung provided a loaner unit for coverage purposes.
