Samsung Music Studio 7 review: A great speaker on its own, and even better in a pair

The company’s $500 speaker is well-equipped to pull double duty.

If you're still waiting for the Galaxy Home, I'm sorry to tell you it's well past time to move on. Thankfully, Samsung has other options, including the two Wi-Fi speakers the company revealed at CES. One of those is the Music Studio 7 ($500), a premium-looking, premium-sounding device that's capable of pulling double duty, either on a shelf or flanking your TV. With a full collection of the company's audio features onboard, including an HDMI port, the Studio 7 is well-equipped to take on the likes of category leader Sonos for both music and TV audio.

The Music Studio 7 is one of two speaker collaborations between Samsung and French artist Erwan Bouroullec. The other is the Music Studio 5. The team-up resulted in a minimalist aesthetic, with both speakers looking more like sculptures than audio gear. Samsung explains that the refined designs are meant to blend in with home decor, but I'd argue the Studio 7's rectangular shape keeps it from doing so. It's obviously a speaker, even with the elevated overall look.

Bouroullec and Samsung opted for solid panels on all sides, adorned with a dot pattern to allow sound to pass through. There are no mesh speaker grilles here. On the front, a concave circle sits at the top, centered on the Studio 7's front-facing driver. There's an LED indicator at the edge of the circle that lights up for various modes and statuses — like volume adjustments, for example. On the top of the speaker, a row of buttons gives you access to the audio inputs, volume, playback controls and muting the microphone. Around back, there are optical and HDMI (eARC) ports (both rare finds) alongside a USB-A socket for service purposes.

Inside, five drivers power the 3.1.1-channel setup. That's three main channels — left, right and center — along with a built-in woofer and one up-firing channel. That last one means that the Studio 7 can deliver real Dolby Atmos audio without the need for any virtualization tricks. The driver arrangement here allows the speaker to beam sound in four directions, blasting audio from every panel except the rear and bottom.

Samsung managed to cram a full suite of audio features into the Music Studio 7. There's SpaceFit Sound Pro room calibration, content-based Adaptive Sound, AI Dynamic Bass Control, Active Voice Amplifier dialogue boost, Group Play and high-resolution audio support (up to 24-bit/96kHz). If you have a compatible Samsung TV, you can use a pair of Studio 7s in the living room with the company's Q-Symphony feature to use the television's