Audio System Samsung VL550

Samsung is listening

Samsung could not stay away from the trend for smart speakers for long and towards the end of 2018 released its VL550 smart system. Moreover, in terms of design, the company got something unexpectedly cool. If most smart speakers are shaped like small round barrels, then the Samsung VL550 is more like an enlarged speaker from an old radio, on top of which a futuristic puck remote control with touch control buttons nests. An interesting game of contrasts.

Unusual smart speaker

Plus, the bullet itself is an additional control option if for some reason you don’t want to command with your voice. The focus of the VL550 is on music performance rather than smart home control like the Apple HomePod or Google Home.

Voice control is based on the Amazon Alexa assistant, but this is not a standard version that can read the news or order pizza, but rather a smart system for controlling the built-in player.

Sound from AKG

Unlike the usual smart speakers VL550 with its dimensions and weight of 4.6 kg seems to be a real giant. There is complete order with the sound here: this is a full-fledged stereo system with adequate channel separation, powerful sound and high-quality sounding of the space. In the nature of the sound, mids are pronounced, which quite easily reveal new details in long-familiar compositions. The AKG company, which not so long ago came under the wing of the Korean giant, was responsible for the development of the audio path.

Complete set of connections

In terms of functionality, The One boasts Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. As an alternative to a wireless connection, there is a good old 3.5 output. The speaker is controlled using the proprietary SmartThings application. And this is perhaps the main weakness of this model — it is far from being as convenient as applications from Bose or Sonos, and integration with popular streaming is very poor. For example, Spotify, popular in the west, was added recently, there are no such things as Soundcloud or TuneIn Radio.

It remains to be hoped that the company will develop the application and all this will appear over time. Buying a smart speaker to use only via Bluetooth seems like a dubious idea to us.