Traditional 2.1 speakers are continuously losing their battle against modern-day Bluetooth speakers, audio docks and soundbars. Many of them offer good sound, great design and are packed with a whole lot of features like NFC, Bluetooth and even optical inputs. The Samsung HW-H20 looks very promising and stylish, but doesn’t support any of high-end features or even Bluetooth connectivity. This comes across as a huge downside, especially when the product is priced around Rs. 5,500*. Considering that, we expect nothing but great audio performance for it.
Design and Build
The Samsung HW-H20 is a very good looking pair of speakers; unlike the monotonous designs we’ve been seeing from most speakers. The speakers look stylish enough to be placed in your living room. Both the speakers and the woofer have a similar design. The glossy finish on speakers, also features a fine texture, which makes them look a little classy.
One thing you will notice about the HW-H20 is that it’s a little bigger than most 2.1 speaker sets. The installation is simple, but placing the woofer can be a little tricky. It’s larger than most woofers we’ve seen that share the same power output.
The woofer cabinet is made of wood. It weighs 4.6 kg and its build feels pretty solid. The speakers are made of plastic. They are light and can be wall-mounted if you like. Both the woofer and the stereo speakers come with a metal grill at the front that protects the driver.
The right speaker carries all the ports and the controls. Both the woofer and the left speakers are connected to it by cables provided in the box. They have pigtail connectors and are long enough to let you place them on each side of a standard desktop table.
Features
Like its size, the Samsung HW-H20 is big on its output as well. Together, the speaker and woofer support a total power output of 60W. If you plan on using the speakers with your PC or laptop, then you wouldn’t have any problems at all. The output should be loud enough for most rooms. Out of the total output, 30W goes to the woofer and the rest is divided between the stereo speakers. The subwoofer driver is about 6.5 inches in size.
The HW-H20 doesn’t have too many features, so it’s a simple plug-n-play device, minus all the chaos. The speaker comes with the usual bass and treble dials along with the volume control.
The big disappointment is the absence of Bluetooth. There are plenty of 2.1 speakers priced under Rs. 5,500 that also support this feature. With the HW-H20 though, you only get stereo RCA ports for
connecting your PC, laptop, phone, tablet or TV.
The USB port can be used to play music from a pen drive, but it doesn’t support hard drives. There is no LED indicator on the system that tells you what song or track you’re playing. Samsung hasn’t even included a remote, which means every time you want to skip a track, you have to go up to the speaker and press the button on it.
Performance
Although there a few features missing, the HW-H20 is still a very impressive set of 2.1 speakers. You don’t have to listen to it for long to realize it. Apart from just being loud, the speakers are very versatile. You can play any kind of content and the HW-H20 will guarantee an output that you’ll enjoy. We heard a lot of songs, watched movies and were very happy with the sound.
With the bass and treble dials set to optimum levels, we played a number of tracks on the speakers, from plenty of music genres. Of course the first thing you notice is the loud output and the heavy bass. Even with the volume set to 50 percent, the music was room filling. While the bass is loud, it’s smooth and clear. This kind of output makes the HW-H20 perfect for hosting parties and keeping the energy up at all times. One of the first songs we heard on the speaker was the Phaeleh’s ‘Breathe in Air’. The song sounded great. Vocals sounded soothing, with the bass line providing a resonating rhythm in the background.
Every single effect in the song could be heard clearly, even with plenty of sounds going off at the same time.We could hear a similar output with other genres as well. We heard a good amount of balance in the sound while playing Porcupine Tree’s ‘Anesthetize’. Drums sounded pretty solid, while the guitar riffs sounded very sharp. The channel separation was also brought out really well while playing this song. The HW-H20 will also enhances your daily TV watching experience, regardless of the content. We played The Dark Knight on the HW-H20 and liked the performance a lot. The action sequences sounded thrilling, all thanks to the heavy bass. Thanks to the good sound staging, the minor details in the background could be heard, while the dialogues stood-out very clearly. The background score was able to give us goosebumps in the end.
Verdict
The HW-H20 are a great set of speakers. What it lacks in terms of features, it makes up with its sound. The HW-H20 offers a loud output and great clarity. It is versatile enough to be the right companion for your computer or even TV. You can play anything on it and it’s guaranteed to sound great. If you can live without Bluetooth connectivity and want a permanent set of speakers for your computer, then look no further.
