Samsung HW-MS750 review: The best standalone soundbar just got a lot cheaper

Samsung is probably best known for its smartphones and its TVs, but it has its fingers in a lot of other pies as well, notably soundbars. And it’s pretty good at those, too. This year’s Sound+ series has been received well across the industry, and we loved the HW-MS650 and its innovative distortion reduction technology. The HW-MS750 is the latest release in the range and it’s an even better speaker.

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Samsung HW-MS750 review: What you need to know

The HW-MS750 is a soundbar that’s best suited to larger TVs and rooms. It measures 1,376mm across so best suits TVs 49in and larger in size and it can be wall mounted using the bundled bracket and attached beneath compatible Samsung TVs with the optional TV mount. It’s not too tall, though, so if you want to place it in front of your TV it should fit perfectly well without getting in the way of the picture.

The HW-MS750 is primarily designed as a standalone soundbar and, as you’ll see below, it’s the best of its type in that regard, but it can also be expanded with the £119 SWA-9000S Rear Speaker Kit for full-on surround sound (or the Samsung R1, R3 or R5 speakers) and the £600 SWA-700 subwoofer for stronger bass.

This is not just a TV speaker, though. Yes, you can use it for movie, TV and gaming audio duties, but Samsung also wants it to be your main speaker for music and wireless audio streaming, so you can play tunes directly to it from your phone or over your home network via Spotify Connect or the Samsung app.

Samsung HW-MS750 review: Price and competition

The Samsung HW-MS750 costs £689, which is a lot for a standalone soundbar and, at that price, there aren’t too many products like it on the market.

The obvious rivals are the Bose SoundTouch 300 (£599) the Sonos Playbase (£699) and the Sonos Playbar (£649), none of which quite match the Samsung for flexibility or sound quality.

In fact, the strongest competition comes from Samsung’s own stable of TV speakers. The HW-K850 costs £799, which comes with a wireless subwoofer in the box and support for Dolby Atmos. Then there’s the Samsung HW-MS650, which costs £398, sounds nearly as good and looks identical to the HW-MS750; the main difference is that it has fewer drivers – 9 versus 11 – and one fewer HDMI passthrough port.

Non-Sky TV customers can also buy the Sky Soundbox for £799 but you’re better off opting for the more fully featured Samsung instead.

Samsung HW-MS750: Connectivity and design

When it comes to connections, the Samsung HW-MS750 has it all. Physical connections are all located in a cutout underneath the soundbar and you get everything you need. There are three HDMI ports – two inputs, both 4K passthrough enabled and one ARC-enabled output – one 3.5mm input jack and an optical S/PDIF input.

Wireless connectivity includes Bluetooth so you can play tunes directly from mobile devices and Wi-Fi for playback via Spotify Connect or other streaming services via the Samsung Wireless Audio-Multiroom app, including Tidal, TuneIn, Deezer and Qobuz. You can also stream music from files stored in shared network folders and owners of compatible Samsung TVs can also stream audio wirelessly to the soundbar via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Design-wise, the HW-MS750 is best described as attractive, well made, but staid. It’s wrapped mainly in a perforated steel grill, with a mix of plastic and aluminium trim to set it off and everything, bar the silver control buttons on the right end panel, is finished in black. There’s a white OLED display showing status, volume levels and the like beneath the grille on the right-hand side and a couple of small LEDs above it, but that’s your lot when it comes to visual appeal.

The remote control is pretty plain, too, but it’s wonderfully usable. It’s compact and slim, very comfortable to hold and keeps the number of buttons to a minimum.

Samsung HW-MS750: Sound quality

As usual with TV speakers, the HW-MS750 has a number of different sound profiles, tailored for different duties, but I found myself defaulting to the Surround Sound option, which uses the HW-MS750’s 450W of power and 11 drivers to spread audio around your room in an attempt to simulate a multi-speaker setup.

It’s remarkably effective and although it doesn’t quite create the height and convincing sound bubble that the Samsung HW-K850 does (there’s no Dolby Atmos support here), it’s still very impressive. Audio appears to come from the sides and around you, there’s a real sense of depth and positioning to sound effects and voices and speech are clear and intelligible at all times.

I was worried about the lack of a subwoofer, but I needn’t have. Samsung’s anti-distortion technology works here to produce a phenomenal amount of low-end thump, which Samsung says reaches right the way down to 27Hz. The £600 wireless subwoofer, which by the way is a beautifully constructed piece of kit, does add a richer, lower, and more powerful low-end but, honestly, the soundbar itself should suffice for most people’s needs.

The bass it kicks out is astonishing for a speaker this slim and it’s where the MS750 beats its cheaper sibling – the MS650, which doesn’t quite reach down as low.

And the HW-MS750 performs just as well with music as it does with film soundtracks, with a huge acreage of soundstage and a sense of clarity and dynamism that makes your skin tingle.

The only gripe I have is that, with some tracks, the sheer clarity of detail it’s capable of reproducing at the top-end of the audio spectrum can clash and grate a little on the ears. The flip side is that the HW-MS750 is capable of creating a huge amount of atmosphere in quiet acoustic tracks, picking out the nuances in live recordings that other TV speakers can only dream of.

Samsung HW-MS750 review: Verdict

If there’s one thing that’s abundantly clear, the Samsung HW-MS750 is the best standalone soundbar you can buy. There’s nothing else that comes close to the scale of sound, the soundstage and the sense of atmosphere that this soundbar is capable of reproducing. And the amount of gut-rumbling bass it pumps out without needing a subwoofer is truly outstanding.

If you need a soundbar and have no room for a sub, there’s simply nothing better you can spend your money on.

The only problem is with the value. It’s a pricey £689 and the only-slightly-less-impressive HW-MS650 can currently be had for an astonishingly reasonable £400. Still, if you want the very best you most certainly won’t be disappointed with this.