Anika Begay
By connecting the soundbar via HDMI (it has eARC) to any modern TV, you can immediately use the TV remote to control the audio volume, but you’ll want to use the remote on the soundbar itself (unless you have an LG TV) to change settings. It also supports things like Tidal Connect’s Dolby Vision pass-through, making it a great bar for streaming music or hooking up your disc player for full-bitrate video (and audio).
Pressing Play
I had the pleasure of reviewing this system alongside LG’s new C4 OLED, which can add even more channels to the mix, helping its TV speakers boost the center channel and make voices seem to come directly from the picture.
The huge range of speakers and the volume they can produce means you really get a sense of scale when scenes change, or when you switch from one type of thing to another. When playing modern classics like Dune AND Mad Max: Fury Roadyou feel the immensity of the scenes in the audio profile that the bar, subwoofer, and satellite speakers deliver. When my wife turns back to RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m immediately sucked into what’s happening on the screen, with a more traditional three-channel TV sound, immersive and dynamic, but much smaller in your space.
Photography: Parker Hall
You can adjust the audio modes on the bar, but I tend to prefer the standard settings except when watching movies, where I’ve experimented with (and occasionally opted for) Cinema mode, which sends a bit more sound to the surround and height channels, as far as I can tell.
Standard mode essentially listens to everything the TV tells it to do, which makes it very well-suited to LG’s AI processing inside its latest TVs. With this and the C4, it’s essentially a “turn it on and forget it’s there” vibe, which is what I prefer in my home theaters. There’s nothing worse than having to open cabinets, push buttons, and wait for things to light up and show up. It really can’t be overstated how well this worked (and how rare that experience is, oddly enough, in the world of AV).
This model’s closest competitor is Samsung’s Q990D ($1,700), which I have to admit I prefer in some ways. The LG’s audio profile can be a bit thinner and brighter than the Samsung’s, and I find that the Samsung model bounces sound off the walls a bit better for a wider soundstage. That said, given how well the S95TR integrates with LG’s latest TVs, I’d probably choose it over the Samsung Bar if I were buying the LG TV, and likewise I’d buy the Samsung Bar if I were buying a Samsung TV.
As far as simple (and, let’s be honest, not terribly expensive) ways to set up a room with a pretty solid approximation of what an A/V nerd’s cave would experience, I think LG has nailed it. If I were buying a C4 and didn’t have a decent sound system to pair it with, I’d definitely consider this one.
