Can You Add Speakers to a Samsung Soundbar? Which Bars and Kits
Yes, you can add speakers to a Samsung soundbar, but only the ones Samsung built for it: a wireless rear speaker kit matched to your bar’s model year, and on a few slim bars a subwoofer.
- ✓ Listed as the wireless Dolby Atmos/DTS:X rear kit
- ✓ Samsung's 2025 and 2026 Q-series guides name it as the optional rear speaker for the Q900F, Q800F, Q900H, Q800H and Q600H
- ✓ Named in Samsung's HW-S60D guide as the subwoofer sold separately
- ✓ Samsung lists it for the HW-S60D, S61D, S60B, S61B and S50B
Buy a kit from the wrong year and the blue light on its back never settles, because Samsung ties each kit to a short list of bars.
Match the kit to the bar and you get what Samsung’s own output tables promise: a 2.1 bar playing 4.1 channels, a 3.1.2 bar playing 5.1.2, a 5.1.2 bar playing 7.1.4.
Below, Samsung’s compatibility lists are pulled into one table by kit and year, then the bars that arrive with rear speakers, what a stereo bar does with them, and where a subwoofer fits.
Find the model number on your bar’s label, read down to its kit, and you’ll know what to buy and what it adds before you spend anything.
Can You Add Speakers to a Samsung Soundbar?
That model number decides everything, so the yes comes with one condition. You can add speakers to a Samsung soundbar when Samsung names a kit for it: Samsung’s rear speaker help page says to get the kit that matches your model, since other kits may not be compatible, and that a bar missing from its lists is compatible if its specifications or user manual say so.
Most Samsung bars since 2016 carry that line in their own manual: expand to true wireless surround sound by connecting the Samsung Wireless Rear Speaker Kit, with the kit’s number and the words “sold separately”.
Two kinds of add-on exist, and nothing else: the rear kit, and an optional subwoofer for the handful of slim bars that ship without one. A Bluetooth speaker or another brand’s rears can’t take their place, as the Bluetooth section below explains.
If your bar isn’t a Samsung, our guide to adding speakers to any soundbar covers what Sonos, Bose, LG, Sony and Polk allow. For rear speakers from day one, 5.1 soundbar systems with rears included start with Sony’s BRAVIA Theater System 6 and Amazon’s Fire TV Soundbar Plus bundle.
Which Samsung Soundbars Take a Wireless Rear Speaker Kit?
With the yes settled, the table is the part to bookmark. Samsung has sold seven rear kits since 2016, and the bars for each come from Samsung’s US help page, which covers kits up to 2022, and from the kit each later bar’s own user guide names:
| Rear kit | Bars Samsung names for it |
|---|---|
| SWA-8000S | 2016 bars such as the HW-K450 |
| SWA-8500S | 2017 HW-M360; 2018 HW-N400, N450, N550 and N650; 2019 HW-R450, R550, R650, Q60R and Q70R; 2020 HW-T450, T550, T650, Q60T and S60T |
| SWA-9000S | 2017 HW-MS550, MS650, MS6500 and MS750; 2018 HW-N850 and NW700; 2019 HW-Q80R; 2020 HW-Q70T, Q800T and Q900T |
| SWA-9100S | 2021 HW-A450, A550, A650, Q600A, S50A, S60A and S61A; 2022 HW-B450, B550, B650, Q600B, Q60B and S60B |
| SWA-9200S | 2022 HW-B450, B550, B650, Q600B, Q60B and S60B; 2023 HW-C450, Q60C and Q600C; 2024 HW-S60D and S700D |
| SWA-9250S | 2025 HW-Q600F, B750F and B550F |
| SWA-9500S | 2021 HW-Q700A, Q800A and Q900A; 2022 HW-Q700B, Q800B and S800B; 2024 HW-S800D; 2025 HW-Q900F and Q800F; 2026 HW-Q900H, Q800H and Q600H |
Read the table by the letter after the number, because Samsung’s series letters follow the years: M for 2017, N for 2018, R for 2019, T for 2020, A for 2021, B for 2022, C for 2023, then D, F and H for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
The 2022 bars appear under two kits because the B650, Q600B and S60B manuals name the 9100S or the 9200S, while the 2023 and 2024 bars name only the 9200S.
What Is the Difference Between Samsung’s Rear Speaker Kits?
Those seven kits split into two designs, and the split decides how many power outlets you need. On every kit except the 9500S, Samsung’s help page says only the wireless receiver module is wireless: the two speakers plug into that module with wires, and the module takes one power cord.
The T450, A450 and B550 manuals draw that module’s back panel with an ID SET button, a power socket and a pair of surround speaker terminals marked with a 3-ohm impedance. The 9500S drops the module, and Samsung says it’s wireless except for the power cord going to each speaker.
The 9500S also adds more than two channels at the back. Samsung’s 2025 user guide for the HW-Q990F, Q930F, Q900F and Q800F lists the Q800F at 5.1.2 channels with its subwoofer and 7.1.4 with the kit, and the Q900F at 7.1.2 and 9.1.4, so the kit brings two surround channels and two height channels.
The 2025 kit is the plainest: the Q600F, B750F and B550F guides name the 9250S and send you to the kit’s own manual for the connection steps, and its listing says the two speakers connect to each other by wire.
How much wire each maker’s “wireless” rears still need is laid out in Burton Acoustix’s wired vs wireless soundbar guide.
For a 2025 bar, the kit to buy is Samsung’s SWA-9250S wireless rear speaker kit. For the Atmos bars in the table’s last row, Samsung’s SWA-9500S rear speaker kit is the one the guides name.
Samsung’s SWA-9250S wireless rear speaker kit
Every pick on this page met Burton Acoustix’s rating, review and stock checks on 29 October 2026.
Do Any Samsung Soundbars Come With Rear Speakers?
The kit question disappears on Samsung’s biggest systems, which pack the surround speakers in the box. Samsung’s user guides list left and right surround speakers among the components of the HW-Q990B, Q990C and Q990D, and the 2025 and 2026 guides mark them as included with the Q990F, Q930F, Q990H and Q930H only.
Their output tables reach 11.1.4 channels on the Q990F and Q990H and 9.1.4 on the Q930F and Q930H. The 2024 guide for the Q930D, Q800D and Q700D and the 2023 guide for the Q930C, Q800C and Q700C list the surround speakers as optional without naming a kit, so for those bars the box list in your own guide is the check.
Older bundles exist too: Samsung’s US help page marks the kit as included in the box for the HW-Q850T, HW-T47M and HW-R47M. For a bar bought new, the best Samsung soundbars by budget and room sets the Q990 class against the bars that take a kit later.
Does Your Samsung Soundbar Take an Extra Subwoofer?
The subwoofer side is simpler, because most Samsung bars arrive with one. Every Q-series and B-series bar in the table lists a subwoofer among its components, so the add-on question only arises on the slim S-series bars sold without one.
Samsung names those subwoofers by model. The HW-S60D guide names the SWA-W510 as the wireless subwoofer sold separately, Samsung’s SWA-W510 page lists the HW-S60D, S61D, S60B, S61B and S50B as the bars it fits, and the US help page names the SWA-W500 for the HW-S60T and the SWA-W700 for bars whose model numbers begin with HW-MS or HW-NW.
The W700 has one extra part: its manual ships it with a wireless dongle for the bar’s WIRELESS port, which also serves the optional rear speaker kit.
For an S-series bar, Samsung’s SWA-W510 wireless subwoofer is the one Samsung names.
Samsung’s SWA-W510 wireless subwoofer
To connect two subwoofers is a different question, answered bar by bar in our page on whether a Samsung soundbar takes a second subwoofer. The subwoofer’s lights and pairing steps are in our guide to linking a Samsung subwoofer and soundbar.
What Do Rear Speakers Add to a 2.0 or 3.1 Samsung Soundbar?
With the kit and subwoofer chosen, the next question is what the bar does with them, and that depends on the bar’s processing. Samsung’s help page says a bar with 2.0 processing still plays sound from the rear speakers but gives them no separate channel, so whatever the rears play also comes from the soundbar.
For that reason Samsung suggests setting the speakers to either side of you instead of behind you on a 2.0 bar, or when the content itself is only stereo. The bigger the bar’s own channel count, the more the kit adds, as the output tables in each bar’s guide show:
| Your bar (Samsung’s guide) | Alone, with its subwoofer | With the rear kit |
|---|---|---|
| HW-B550F, B550, C450 (2.1) | 2.1 channels | 4.1 channels in Surround Sound; 2.1 in Standard |
| HW-Q60C, B650 (3.1) | 3.1 channels | 5.1 channels |
| HW-Q600F, Q600C, Q600B (3.1.2) | 3.1.2 channels | 5.1.2 channels with Dolby Atmos or DTS:X input |
| HW-B750F (5.1) | 5.1 channels | 7.1 channels |
| HW-S60D, S60B with the W510 | 5.1 channels | 7.1 channels with Dolby Atmos input |
| HW-Q800F, Q800H (5.1.2) | 5.1.2 channels | 7.1.4 channels with the 9500S |
| HW-Q900F, Q900H (7.1.2) | 7.1.2 channels | 9.1.4 channels with the 9500S |
Every one of those guides adds the same warning: the rear speakers produce no sound for 2-channel output while Standard mode is in use, so you switch the effect mode to Surround Sound to hear them.
The source matters as much: Samsung’s help page says 2.0 content comes out as 2.0 whatever the bar can do, and recommends HDMI ARC or eARC and the right TV audio format, the settings in our walkthrough for setting up a Samsung soundbar with the TV. If 4.1 from a 2.1 bar sounds like a small step, our comparison of a separate 5.1 speaker system against a soundbar shows what a bar and kit can’t match.
What Will You Hear Once the Rear Speakers Are Connected?
Once the rears are live in Surround mode, Samsung gives you three controls over them. The first is level: the Q600F guide puts REAR LEVEL under the CH LEVEL button, adjustable from -6 to +6, and the Q990D guide splits it into Rear level, Rear top level and Rear side level over the same range.
The second is grouping: the B750F manual describes SOUND GROUPING as the bar and the rears playing the entire sound instead of surround sound, and PRIVATE REAR SOUND as sound from the rears only, with the bar and subwoofer silent.
The third is position. Samsung’s 2025 Q-series guide draws the surround speakers at 135 to 150 degrees from the line pointing at the soundbar, puts the bar’s wireless signal at about 10 meters (32.8 feet), and says a steel wall or reinforced concrete between the bar and the rears blocks it; the A450 manual adds that another device on the bar’s 5.8 GHz band can interrupt the sound.
The rears are the only part of the system meant to sit behind you, and our guide covers why the bar itself stays at the TV. The Q990D’s surround speakers take wall mounts rated above 8.0 kg (17.6 lb), and Samsung’s notes for mounting them sit beside the bar’s own steps.
Will Bluetooth Speakers or Another Brand’s Rears Work With a Samsung Soundbar?
Those controls only exist for Samsung’s own speakers, which answers the question people ask most. Samsung’s compatibility statements and manuals name only its rear kits and subwoofers as add-ons, and none of them pairs over Bluetooth: the kits link through ID SET on the bar’s own wireless signal, which the A450 manual puts on 5.8 GHz.
Bluetooth runs the other way in every Samsung guide. Samsung’s HW-A450 manual describes connecting a TV via Bluetooth, one TV at a time, and connecting a mobile device via Bluetooth, no more than one device at a time, both to play sound through the soundbar.
The only Bluetooth speaker those guides mention is the soundbar itself: the Q600F and 2025 Q-series guides have you pick the bar from the TV’s Bluetooth Speaker List, and the Q600F’s PAIR button waits for a new Bluetooth device to connect to the bar.
Another brand’s speakers have no place to go either: Samsung’s manuals describe the receiver module’s terminals for the kit’s own two speakers, and the help page’s rule that the kit must match the model leaves no room for a third-party pair. One Samsung bar did offer a second route, since the HW-Q70R manual says Samsung’s own wireless speakers, added through the SmartThings app, can form a surround sound system with that 2019 bar, and tells you to disconnect them before pairing an 8500S kit.
How Do You Add the Speakers Once You Have the Right Kit?
With the right kit in hand, the pairing is a short job that Samsung’s help page splits into wiring and ID SET. For a module kit, the gray plug goes into the gray jack and the blue plug into the blue jack on the receiver, each cable runs to the speaker with the matching label, and the receiver’s power cord goes into an outlet.
If the module’s LINK light blinks, you run ID SET: turn the bar off, hold VOL or Up on its remote for 5 to 6 seconds until ID SET shows on the display, and turn the bar on if it doesn’t power up by itself. The light stops blinking and glows solid blue when the module and the bar are linked.
Samsung notes that the button varies by model, and the 9500S skips the wiring and goes straight to ID SET. The year-by-year button list, from Mute on the 2015 kits to Up on the 2026 bars, with the light codes and the fixes when the blue light won’t settle, is in our guide on how to connect Samsung rear speakers to a soundbar.
The Bottom Line
Adding speakers to a Samsung soundbar comes down to one kit per model year: the 9250S for the 2025 F-series bars, the 9500S for the Atmos bars Samsung names from the Q700A to the Q600H, the 9200S for 2022 to 2024 bars and the 9100S, 9000S and 8500S before them. The subwoofer is usually in the box, and the W510 fills the gap on the slim S-series.
What you hear afterward follows the bar’s own channel count, from 4.1 on a 2.1 bar in Surround mode to 9.1.4 on a Q900F, with Bluetooth speakers and other brands’ rears left out by Samsung’s own documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use any Samsung rear speaker kit with my soundbar?
No. Samsung’s help page says to get the kit that matches your model, since other kits may not be compatible, and your bar’s user guide names the kit in its wireless section; a 2022 bar is the one case with two choices, the 9100S or the 9200S.
Can I add rear speakers to a 2.1 Samsung soundbar like the HW-B550F?
Yes, with the 9250S that the B550F guide names, and the bar’s output table shows 4.1 channels in Surround Sound, Game, Adaptive Sound and DTS Virtual:X. In Standard mode the rears play nothing from 2-channel content.
Can I connect Bluetooth speakers to a Samsung soundbar for surround sound?
Samsung’s guides describe Bluetooth as a way to play a TV or a mobile device through the soundbar, one device at a time, and the only Bluetooth speaker they mention is the bar itself in the TV’s Bluetooth Speaker List. Its surround add-ons are its own rear kits, paired by ID SET over the bar’s wireless link.
Can I add more speakers to a Samsung Q990 that already has rear speakers?
Samsung’s 2025 and 2026 Q-series guides name the 9500S only for the Q900F, Q800F, Q900H, Q800H and Q600H, and give no kit for the Q990 and Q930, which arrive with their surround speakers. If those rears drop off, ID SET reconnects them.
