Samsung is making waves at CES this year with its latest home audio products, including a picture frame speaker that can sync with Samsung soundbars and TVs. The Music Frame is a unique device that combines the beauty of traditional picture frames with the power of modern audio technology.
The Music Frame is not your typical digital picture frame. Instead, it’s designed to showcase actual prints, up to 8 x 8 inches in size. You can even personalize it with your favorite artwork or snapshot by using a third-party vendor to print on the included diasec matte acrylic plate.
But the Music Frame is more than just a pretty face. It’s also a Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker that delivers rich, immersive sound. With four front-firing drivers (two tweeters and two mid-range drivers) and a pair of back-firing woofers, the Music Frame can fill any room with music. It can operate on its own as a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi speaker, and it even has a built-in IoT hub that works with Samsung SmartThings. This means you can control the Music Frame and other smart devices in your home using your voice or a smartphone app.
One of the coolest features of the Music Frame is its support for Samsung’s Q-Symphony technology. This feature syncs the drivers on the Music Frame with the drivers on a compatible Samsung soundbar or TV, creating a wider, more immersive soundstage.
For example, you could flank your Samsung QLED TV with a pair of wall-mounted Music Frames to boost the TV’s soundstage, or place the Music Frame in the rear of the room to bolster a Samsung soundbar’s surround channels.
The Music Frame also supports Samsung’s SpaceFit Sound technology, which calibrates the audio in real-time according to your room’s acoustics. This ensures that you’re always getting the best possible sound quality, no matter where you place the Music Frame.
In addition to the Music Frame, Samsung also unveiled a number of new soundbars at CES, including its latest flagship, the HW-Q990D. This massive soundbar offers a 11.1.4-channel configuration, including four height channels for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It also supports wireless Dolby Atmos when used with compatible Samsung TVs.
New for the HW-Q990D is 120Hz 4K video passthrough, ideal for gamers looking for silky-smooth gaming visuals. There’s also a new “Private Listening Mode” that restricts the Q990D’s audio to the rear speakers for late-night listening sessions, while a Party Play Mode “broadens” the sound profile to deliver the “perfect vibe.” Finally, the Q990D adds compatibility with Roon, the audiophile-oriented music server software.
Samsung also refreshed its line of “ultra slim” soundbars, with the new 46-inch-wide HW-S800D now offering an HDMI-eARC interface, rather than standard ARC like the previous generation. With eARC, the S800D can accept lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio signals from Blu-ray players. Meanwhile, the new HW-S700D takes the S800D’s super-slim form factor and narrows it down to a 35 inch-wide chassis.
