Music is the other key area we wanted to explore, so we grabbed our iPad and a handful of CDs to really let us put these big bad boys to the test.
Pop a CD into the tray of the F9750W and you’ll find most of the speakers switch off, with the centre and rear speakers deactivating, and the top two extra directional channels in both of the floor standing front speakers no longer sending any audio in your direction.
Rather, in two channel audio, you’ll find that the important speakers – the left, right, and subwoofer – are completely functional, and only them.
Our first test disc was the Miles Davis classic “Kind of Blue,” with the speakers doing a lovely job of recreating the detail of his trumpets, the warm tonality of the double bass, and the richness of the recordings.
We don’t know what it would have been like to be there for the recording (we’ll start with “awesome” and move on from there), but if this is the way Miles Davis meant the music to be heard, we want more of this in our life.
The other discs in our limited audition with the F9750W were all just as impressive in dimensionality and clarity, with the strong horns in Trombone Shorty’s “Hurricane Season,” and both the softness and sharp attack of Nigel Kennedy’s violins in “Vivaldi” sounding insanely clear and detailed.
While we’re not sure if the vacuum tube is really making a difference for either music or movies, the Gallium Nitride (GaN) appears to stop high sounds from over flowing, which is excellent, and is absolutely worth it for those who love to turn it up.
We suspect we actually bothered a few of the other guests with our high volume recreations of Wall-E and Skyfall.
You can listen to more than just movies and music from a disc, mind you, and we took advantage of the time to see what Bluetooth could do.
Connecting our iPad up wirelessly and running our regular headphone test playlist, the system performed very well, replaying our music with just as much clarity as it had when the media was physical.
There are quite a few connections available to you, and there’s also a USB port on the front of the F9750W in case you want to plug a stick or hard drive in, but don’t bother with an iPod cable here, as it will only pay attention to your photos.
Overall, it’s an impressive effort for the sound system, though it’s not a cheap piece of kit. With a recommended retail price of $1499, it could well be a great accompaniment for someone who has just purchased a new TV, or desires a no-nonsense path to making their current audio sound even better.
It won’t be the only piece of home theatre tech to arrive from Samsung, though, with the company catering to several price points through the new range, even keeping one of 2012’s models around because it did so well.
And those of you who don’t need a full home theatre system will even find more soundbars arriving, one of which takes advantage of the vacuum tube technology and hitting stores with an RRP of $799.
This cannot be described as a “high end” home theatre audio system. I’d describe it as upper low end. My own HT audio system cost me over $9,000 and it is only a “medium” grade system.