Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Enjoy crisp audio with our Samsung Sound + soundbar setup and unboxing guide

Soundbars provide a great way to boost your TV’s audio output for a reasonable price. At less than $500, Samsung’s Sound + HW-MS650 is an excellent option, offering powerful, balanced sound and a litany of useful features to bolster your home theater. To help you get started, our Samsung Sound + soundbar setup and unboxing guide will walk you through all the important information, so you don’t have to call customer service to get everything up and running.

What’s in the box?

In addition to the Sound +, you will find the following:

  • An A/C power cable
  • An optical cable for digital connection
  • A remote with two batteries
  • A wall mount template and a user manual
  • Wall mount brackets
  • Feet extensions
  • A cable management clip

The soundbar does not come with HDMI cables or the drywall anchors or screws you need for mounting purposes.

Hardware setup

All the ports and jacks are located on the bottom of the soundbar, rather than its rear. There is a power port, an optical port, a jack for a wireless subwoofer dongle (not included), an auxiliary jack, and HDMI in+out (with ARC support). There is also a port which routes power to a Samsung TV so you can reserve an extra wall outlet if need be.

Speaking of HDMI ARC, that should be your first priority when it comes to TV connection. If you don’t have an appropriate cable, though, optical will work fine as well; just make sure to remove the plastic caps from the ends.

There are also two buttons hidden in a small alcove to the right of the ports. Here you will find the “Wi-Fi Setup” button, which will enable the soundbar to connect wirelessly with a Samsung TV, and the ‘SPK ADD” button, used to connect with the Samsung mobile app.

Features and design

The attractive soundbar is clothed in black and carbon gray, with speaker mesh across the front and a few onboard control buttons on the right side. Frankly, it is unlikely you will be using these, given the inclusion of a remote, but it is nice to know they exist in case you run out of batteries (or if the remote decides to disappear inside a couch).

The remote itself has some cool features, including dedicated bass control, surround sound activation, and sound mode switching. If you have a Samsung One Remote and a matching Samsung TV, you can use that remote to control the soundbar via the TV’s interface.

Software setup

To get the soundbar working properly with your TV, head into the audio settings and switch “sound out” to Optical/HDMI ARC. If you want to listen to music with the soundbar, Samsung’s Connect app can be fairly useful. Once downloaded, it will walk you through the steps to connect to your soundbar, and it offers compatibility with tons of popular music streaming apps.

Caleb Denison
Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…
The Beats Pill is back, baby!
A pair of Beats Pill speakers.

In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.

Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.

Read more
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio Zen Blue 3 DAC (front).

Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.

Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.

Read more
The new Beats Pill might replace Sonos on my back porch
The 2024 Beats Pill and an aging Sonos Play:1.

If I were to build an outdoor stereo in 2024, I'd do it with a pair of portable Beats Pills instead of Sonos speakers. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

In 2017, after more than a decade in our home, my wife and I added a pool. With it came a covered deck, making what basically was a new outdoor room. Not uncommon at all in Florida, but new to us.

Read more