Customer Ratings & Reviews

This soundbar is truly fantastic with amazing sound and most importantly, support for the fantastic Dolby FlexConnect tech that allows real flexibility and great sound from add-on speakers. We were honestly impressed by the heft and sound quality from this sound bar. Even within our oddly shaped living room with a vaulted ceiling, LG/Dolby delivered a balanced and immersive sound after its auto-calibration. We own an LG G5 TV which additionally allows for a wireless connection between this soundbar and the TV, but we opted to connect it directly via HDMI and allow the soundbar be the central coordinator for our two M5 speakers. Even with an irregular placement with one speaker behind and another halfway back we had an incredibly immersive sound without a typical surround layout. While we’re getting amazing sound with less components than is typical for a 5.1 equivalent setup, the FlexConnect within this soundbar also has the ability to support more speakers than a 7.1 setup, if you wish. It takes a lot of guesswork and calibrating out of the mix and makes for a very approachable system, even if you might find yourself messing with sound settings at times for various kinds of media, whether that be booming movies or ‘talky’ dramas where you might want the voice to come through more balanced. Luckily LG provides some quick options both from the ThinQ app and their remote. On its own it’s a very nice, hefty soundbar packed with speakers positioned for awesome stereo and good bass, but for surround sound with additional speakers, it’s industry-changing and absolutely the future for most people. At 47” long, it’s also hefty and powerful in itself. We were able to get very similar sound from the H7 and two M5 speakers as we were able to get out of a big receiver, and a full wired 5.1 setup with and a huge subwoofer. In several ways, LG provided the more immersive sound, with better dynamic range - allowing explosions on screen to sound ‘explosive’ rather than toned down. For a perfect comparison, we may buy LG’s compatible sub (W7) to gain more power in the lower range, but it’s still incredible. In additional to allowing flexibility in number of additional speakers and layout, it’s made our living room much more streamlined. The soundbar looks much more clean than our prior left, center, and right speakers - with all of their inherent bulk and cabling. If starting fresh, this is the way to go. Finally the tech has reached a point where buying a receiver doesn’t feel like a necessity in a theater setup. The small screen on the front is great for relaying modes and is very subtle in practice, almost reading like E-ink, despite being OLED in itself. It never distracts from the TV. A central glow on the middle, lower edge of the soundbar also provides some feedback when adjusting volume - and to indicate that it’s active. My only three small issues with this soundbar is that LG doesn’t give a lot of guidance on how to ensure you’ve set things up in the most ideal way. I had an initial issue with delayed audio and it took me a while to realize that I needed to switch my audio output to ‘PCM’ rather than ‘Bitstream’ to eliminate the problem. Second, the included remote borrows the same design and layout as our LG TV, causing confusion at a glance when we grab for the wrong remote. It almost seems like LG went out of their way to fill each button slot with options you may or may not need, rather than make it more straightforward. Third, the ‘AI Upmix’ feature never made improvements to the sound, but rather caused voices to sound distant and tinny. I always leave it off now. Overall__ Despite those nits, it’s a hefty, quality soundbar that makes any TV sound incredible. It then goes further to support a very flexible surround sound system when you add on either M5 or M7 speakers, with great flexibility as to where you place them - and no speaker wires and just standard power plugs on each, with all sound handled wirelessly. I love the sound from this H7 soundbar in both setups and would happily recommend it to anyone, especially if they may want to have the flexibility to extend their system in the future.

THIS… Is the LG Sound Suite H7, LG’s next generation a la carte centerpiece. This soundbar ships with no surround speakers or subwoofer, so if you want more… its a la carte! That being said, let's see how well the H7 stacks up to its competition and if it is worth the hassle (and extra money) of buying everything separately. Ok so taking this out of the box and right off the start, LG has always put on a good unboxing experience and they have done it again with the H7. It has a sleek box and rope handle (which is almost all entirely recyclable) that not only makes carrying this easier… but lets everyone know you just bought a premium product on the way to your car. Ok so enough of the basics, inside the box is the H7, its remote and detachable power cord as well as one HDMI cable (more on that later), some reading material and really nice magnetic wall brackets (with a paper for your wall to level them easier). The H7 uses a well balanced mix of metal and fabric with the fabric stretching over the front from its nice metal back and bottom to create a very premium look and feel while also hiding dust that might collect on the top. The nice thing about the use of fabric is that you can easily lint roll aways most, if not all of the dust and hair that collects on it in a few swoops. The front of the soundbar has a small yet sufficient display on the left side for your volume / mode with a rather comprehensive but tasteful RGB placed in the middle of the soundbar. I am usually not a fan of things that make my soundbar stick out as I'd rather it blend into my setup… but I have to admit the lighting on the front of the H7 is done so well that I actually enjoy it. The thing I usually hate the most with high end soundbars (really looking at sony here) is that you get a super premium soundbar and then a giant 99 cent remote with 40 buttons… but LG did good on this one with a simple but sleek plastic remote with well placed buttons and ergonomics. Nothing too fancy, but nothing I look at and just immediately want to throw away (cough, sony). Setting up this soundbar is actually… really easy? You are prompted to download their app and create an account with them which was somehow the longest part of this process (and not in a bad way) as the actual setup was maybe 3 presses and my wifi password. My soundbar got an immediate firmware update that did take a few minutes, but otherwise I was set up and ready to go in less than 10 minutes. LG using their top of the line Alpha 11 processor really shows in not only how fast it responds to remote input, but in it’s near instant response from the app as well which is fantastic. I also paired two M5 speakers to this soundbar with little to no effort as well, making the whole setup process significantly easier (and faster) than I expected. The App allows you to easily control the soundbar (and its connected devices) rather easily and also lets you connect spotify to your H7 to control the sound through the spotify app which is a nice touch. The cool thing about the H7 is that it will wirelessly connect to your newest generation (gen 5) LG TV wirelessly (2.4g/5ghz wifi) and completely eliminates the need for an HDMI connection. That being said, you can still use the HDMI cable to connect to any other tv to connect sound… just don't expect to use this soundbar as a passthrough for your devices as it only has the one HDMI port that is used to connect it to the TV if you aren’t on the latest Gen 5 LG TV’s. Ok, so this is what we are alllll here for! How does it sound? To be short, it sounds fantastic. With the app, you can center the sound stage to where you sit to create a pretty dialed in surround sound experience. It has crystal clear mids and highs, and while it doesn’t really pack a punch with no dedicated subwoofer, it doesn't feel empty without one. Removed from features, this is the best soundbar in my house on pure audio ability and sound stage and what I thought I was going to get out of the Bravia series soundbar. The app gives decent control over the sound stage as well with several different modes and a 3 band EQ. A cool thing LG did here was the ability to change the volume of each soundbar ‘zone’ such as its overhead, center and side speakers which is nice for some applications and balancing. All gloating aside, this soundbar does lack the thump of a real subwoofer, so if you are wanting a true theater experience… I would go ahead and plan on getting the subwoofer for a complete setup. If you don’t know you are missing it, it is hard to tell… but as soon as you have the subwoofer, you can’t believe you went without it. The M5’s I paired to my H7 added a significant increase in sound stage and immersion as I felt like it really wrapped the room in sound to a level that a soundbar alone can’t. So while yes, it is more money… but it is money well spent. As far as connections, you can only connect one subwoofer (why just one! WHY!!) but up to 4 M7 or M5 side speakers. So while everything is a la carte, it does add up to make a better sound experience than soundbars that have it included like the samsung Q990F at a small but worth it price bump. To wrap this up, LG has really hit it out of the park with this one. From its snappy feature packed app to its crisp sound stage, there is really not much I didn’t like about this soundbar. I think that this has been a pretty well done masterclass on connectivity, features and sound without feeling like I am having to roll out the book to figure out what everything does… it just does it! The price… hurts… but it is hard to doc LG for this when this is how the market is moving and seemingly making the a la carte products more well rounded as now you don’t ‘have to buy’ them but are being lured to buying them now. That being said, bestbuy has a great return policy so you are never stuck with a soundbar that doesn't fit your home or your expectations. Until next time :)

Amazing sound bar. So far its the best one I've have gotten, and I have had many over the years, started with just a 2.1, then a 5.1, then a 7.1 and finally this one. The build quality is amazing and there is quality fabric everywhere and it has some heft to it, its long too! At 47", you got to make sure you got the space to put this guy down! Installing it is easy and it has the new Dolby flex connect, which is an amazing system, truly revolutionary. If you have a newer 5 series LG Oled TV (I got a C5), you will be able to connect the soundbar to it wirelessly to it, however there is an update that is coming, so far I was only able to connect two independent M5 speakers, but then I decided to reconnect them directly (wirelessly to the soundbar) (and for that, there was also a firmware update on the TV), so I connected the soundbar via HDMI and it has one eARC HDMI port (one con, doesn't have more input HDMI's, so you must use your TV's ones, and via eARC it will pass the sound to the soundbar). If you don't have one the latest LG Oled TV's, you can still use it this way. The soundbar has a little screen on the front for some information, but I mostly use the app to look up the settings and tune it. With Dolby flex connect, you can place your speakers anywhere you want and it will automatically tune the sound to where they are placed (plays sounds to calibrate itself), since I had two other M5 independent satellites (and they are basically a 1.1.1 speaker themselves), I placed those on the rear, like rear surround ones, and it calibrated the system perfectly. The app is good enough and lets you tune your sound to your liking. Sound was amazing and immersive, considering I have a slanted ceiling, not perfectly flat, I could tell the sounds coming from above from Dolby Atmos height tracks just fine! I was wowed. It also has a setting where the sound can follow you and tune itself to wherever you are seating on the room, so no more having to seat perfectly in the middle of the room for a good listening experience. One small con is it does not support DTS:X sound formats. I also tried my video game console and it worked great too (it outputs Dolby Atmos) and I did not notice any lag between the action on the screen and the sound effects. Like I mentioned, I have two M5 speakers as rears (and each has a front and top firing speakers and integrates subwoofers), but with this system you can add more seamlessly and it will auto tune them. I'm planning to buying a pair more and put them on the sides and I'll be set! In all, best sound system I've had and if you are planning on upgrading your sound setup, you won't be disappointed!

TLDR: A significant upgrade from LG's previous generation. Dolby Flex Connect makes setting up a surround sound system pain-free. This review will mirror a lot of my M5 review, as they were sent along with this H7 soundbar for evaluation. PROS Flex Connect Auto Room Calibration Multiple Placement Options and Configurations Compatible with all TV's that have eARC, not just LG CONS Non-standard wall mount bracket spacing for soundbar Cold sounding with little warmth from drivers Not compatible with Amazon Prime Music APP / INSTALLATION For anyone who has ever set-up a surround system in the past, the Dolby Atmos Flex-Connect is an absolute game changer. Buyers are no longer required to run dozens of feet of speaker wires, knock holes in their walls for surrounds, connect everything to an often-complicated home theater receiver and then spend hours calibrating to perfection. Today? Easy. If you have a compatible LG TV, buyers need only find 3 power outlets, as plugging in the power cords is the most difficult part of installing an LG Sound Suite. Don't have a compatible LG TV with Flex Connect built-in? No worry. The system works just as well with an e-ARC connection as well. I tried the system with both a compatible LG OLED and a non-compatible Hisense TV. Both work flawlessly with the Sound Suite. This new LG Sound Suite is replacing a good, but aging LG S95TR surround system. While the S95TR was good at the time, but WowOrchestra was already reaching end of life. Plus, the S95 system was very particular with speaker placement. VERY PARTICULAR. Even with its built-in calibration, sound was still a bit off and not fully convincing and enveloping. You can immediately tell after a true back-to-back comparison that the Dolby Atmos Flex Connect has far more precision and processing power than the long-in-the-tooth WowOrchestra and the S95TR. While not my favorite of apps, LG should be commended at developing a universal app that accommodates products from all their consumer lines. Just like nearly every recent product, the Sound Suite is configured with the LG ThinQ app. It's easy enough to use and does a decent job of organizing disparate products under one roof. Setting up the Sound Suite in the ThinQ app was easy and non-eventful, though it took considerably more time to update firmware and adopt the speakers than I would have thought. DOBLY ATMOS FLEX CONNECT What makes DAFC so revolutionary? It the ease and simplicity of nearly unlimited speaker placement options and the ability to overcome and compensate for less-than-ideal placement. DAFC is FAR superior to WowOrchestra in EVERY way. Start by getting your soundbar connected via whatever means (e-ARC or Flex). Once configured and updated, you can then add your L/R or Surround speakers. Not sure how you want them to work? No worries. Try them as a L/R Front pair. Change your mind? No worries either. Feel free to move them to surrounds. Why? Because as soon as you move speaker placements, the Flex Connect algorithm will go back and adjust those speakers based on placement. No configuration changes, no menus in your receiver to navigate, just a simple tap within the LG app and the magic begins. Using a series of test tones (music) the soundbar listens to itself and any other available Flex Connect compatible speakers. In my case, compatible speakers included the LG Sound Suite M5's. Using some technical wizardry, the Dolby Atmos Flex Connect algorithm automagically determines speaker placement, distance, volume levels, delay times, etc. It works so slick. I can't believe how far home theater has come since the first Dolby surround receivers. What used to take hours to tweak to perfection, now takes literally 1 minute, at the most. It is scary accurate. SOUND QUALITY While the LG Sound Suite is a solid step above my existing S95TR system, i still find the Sound Suite overly flat. It's as if Peerless went above and beyond to try and make the Sound Suite neutral sounding. Almost too much so. Even after calibration and tweaking of the tone controls, the Sound Suite lacks soul and sounds unnecessarily sterile. Hard to describe and not a deal breaker, but if you are used to a system that sounds warm and welcoming, this is not for you. To give a fair break to LG, this system ships without the available subwoofer. Having the ability to produce some lower octaves may, and would surely, change the entire listening experience. Even with its neutral sound, it still is leaps and bounds better than my SG10TY soundbar and sub combo. The added woofers in the H7 soundbar do a better job at providing a much fuller soundstage than the SG10 or the S95TR. NEGATIVES This system supports Spotify Connect and Apple Airplay but doesn't natively support Amazon Prime Music Streaming. The system will not show up as a destination in the Prime Music app while streaming unless you pair it with lossy Bluetooth while using an Android-based phone or tablet. The second issue is as mentioned above, the overly sterile sound and lack of personality. FINAL THOUGHTS The era of huge AV receivers, hundreds of feet of speaker wire, and what often comes just short of a renovation to install a home theater is coming to a close. I've been a home theater buff since the very beginning of the Dolby Pro-Logic systems back in the day. I remember spending hours and days making over rooms into dedicated home theaters. My OCD attention to detail often earned props from the spousal acceptance factor, while the multiple remotes that were often required, complicated menus, and input switching did not. Even basic home theaters were often too complicated to be readily accessible for all family members. LG and Dolby are changing all that. As soundbars started becoming more popular, us home theater folks would scoff at their sound quality and dimensionality. The offerings today are putting us in our places. Easily blurring the lines of a dedicated home theater and a soundbar-based system. Offering performance that is often on par with all but the most lavish systems, make a system like the LG Sound Suite wildly appealing. Ease of installation and configuration without the penalties inherent to systems like these in the past. Home theater soundbars and systems have come a long way. Well done LG! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Ok ok I love soundbars and in box home theatre systems and I have had plenty of them from the ARC ultra with ERA 300’s to the newest one my Bravia theatre quad I am always excited to get a new sound system and because I love LG TV’s this was a seamless no brainer and OMG does it work great with my TV. This flex system came perfectly packed and this soundbar is pretty large and hefty but it came in perfect condition and I already had a bracket for it so i was super excited. Atmos is so hard to do from a soundbar because of the lower profile and limited sound stage I realize the updating speakers never really do as good as a dedicated 5.1.2 or 9.2.4 or whatever set up you might use. What I like is the simplicity , the use of the app, the functionality with my LG C5 83” and decent performance. Decent performance means this thing will crank up the music and provide an immersive experience you will miss some the chimes and stuff that I hear on my Bravia quad or my home theatre dictated system. For a soundbar alone yes it adds a punch however you need the spacial audio speakers and the sub which I can’t find yet. Base from the soundbar is not enough to immerse you in movies but it is enough for regular TV dialog etc. I love how this ties into my C5 and plan on using it over my other systems for that reason alone.

LG has figured it out and put together all of the pieces of the puzzle with their new Sound Suite lineup. This new system checks almost every box but solves the biggest enigma of all, full Dolby Atmos sound without wires for more than a sound bar and 2 satellites. While there are still currently some limits on how many elements you can add to the system, Dolby Atmos Flex Connect (DAFC) with the LG Sound Suite provides a glimpse of what the future of home theater audio is going to look and sound like. The first thing you will notice is how great the Sound Suite system LOOKS. Premium materials all around with aluminum and metal finishes. Cloth mesh grills. Soft LED accent lighting that can be adjusted slightly in color. Great looks and styling with a blend of curves and straight geometry. The H7 itself has a sharp looking metal bottom frame and mesh all around which looks and feels so much more premium than my previous LG system with oddly placed speaker grills focused on function over aesthetics. The mesh and metal body are also big improvements over the all plastic body of my S95TR system. The H7 itself is very hefty at roughly 20lb. and while it is slightly shorter than the S95TR, it is both deeper and overall heavier. One thing to note, with my testing and confirmed by a Reddit post set up by LG for this Sound Suite system, is that the H7 still requires a wired eARC connection to your TV. Eventually, you will be able to go wireless from an LG TV C5/G5 (2025) or newer using Wowcast, but that feature is not coming until later in 2026. I tried setting it up wirelessly with my 77" G5 and then went looking and found the response. The M5/M7 satellites can however be setup using Wowcast direct to your LG TV, however, you can also connect those using DAFC to your H7. Since I already had an H7, I did just connect my 2xM5 to it via the App. Overall, setting up DAFC was easy, however, connecting it to WiFi was very hit or miss so please note you may run into issues if you use WiFi6/7 mesh systems and a wireless network that uses 5GHz and 6GHz bands. LG recommends that you disable the 5/6GHz bands or use a dedicated IoT SSID with just 2.4GHz to set up the Sound Suite components, and then re-enable 5/6GHz and reconnect to that network. This process was seamless on the H7, but on the two M5s this was much more difficult and required multiple pairing attempts. Ultimately, I was able to connect the M5s using a 2.4GHz router, update the firmware and then swap back after cycling the power. Not a great experience and I have a feeling this will be the main problem folks have with this system. One GUI improvement LG can make is not auto-caching the SSID, and allowing the user to both see and delete/change the SSID before the app attempts to reconnect. Hopefully LG continues to update the firmware and improves this experience. A few other big updates/improvements I noticed. The H7 has a nice LED display! I'm not sure why companies got away from this but LG brings it back and its great to see the input, what format audio (Dolby Atmos, LPCM etc) and what source input (HDMI eARC, WiFi, etc.). The remote is also much improved and looks better compared to the larger multi-color rounded remotes that look like a Cable remote. There's also a few regressions and downgrades from previous LG soundbars and soundbar expectations in general. There's no built-in voice assistant support like Alexa, Siri or Google Voice. This isn't a total dealbreaker since you can just use Chromecast or Apple Airplay and cast from your phone, or use the built-in app on your TV or in my case, Apple TV to then play music using the Alexa/Amazon Music app. Its not quite as convenient as just asking Alexa to play a music station however, and that is still something Sonos supports. Also, using Airplay changes the input on the soundbar, and it doesn't seem to autoswap back to the last input using HDMI-CEC. I'll keep playing with this. It does improve on the eARC detection on power up compared to my S95TR with Phillips Hue Sync Box however, so that was a pleasant surprise. It also doesn't support DTS:X, but you can decode at your device and output over LPCM but this is definitely a Dolby Atmos and only Atmos soundbar. So how does it sound? A massive improvement and I am only using 3 components total, no subwoofer, just the H7 in front of the TV and 2xM5 (must be used in pairs bc they are mono, or 1xM5 1xM7) as rear satellites. There is plenty of bass for me as I don't need wallshaking bass anymore with young children. I will likely get the W7 when it becomes available but I'm not sure I need it. I'll also likely get 2xM5 for the front side or middle channels at some point but there really isn't any urgency as the Sound Suite already sounds amazing! Setup in the app or on the TV is simple, just choose the DAFC components you want to add/configure, do some test tones and the DAFC system auto maps and configures based on speaker placement. You can then use Sound Follow with your phone to calibrate sound according to where you are sitting in the room. Everything is crystal clear from voices, to surround sound from the rear channels. If you're keeping tally on price, you'll have noticed with the H7+2xM5+W7 you're looking at close to two grand. If you add two more satellites (current max config), you're adding another five to eight hundred bucks. And apparently there's plans to allow another subwoofer too. Bottomline, if you have a top of the line LG TV (or other model and use eARC to the H7), the Sound Suite with Dolby Atmos Flex Connect is a fantastic option especially if you don't have speaker wires and want to declutter. Just as importantly, the system LOOKS amazing and rivals the sharpest looking models out there from Sonos, Sennheiser, Marshall, B&O, Samsung. And, the sound is fantastic too, taking aim at Sonos in the standalone or aggregated speaker market, however, there is some regression in connectivity as mentioned like lack of standalone Alexa/Voice integration and DTS:X support.

The LG H7 soundbar is a massive piece of equipment with the technology to back it up. I mention its size because it’s truly the largest soundbar I’ve ever owned or seen. For fun, I added a picture of it next to soundbars in a comparable class. Given this bar is designed specifically for LG C5 and G5 class OLEDs, there is no TV in this lineup where the soundbar will look too big or too small. Sound quality wise, it’s outstanding and is able to utilize the AI Sound Pro feature from compatible LG TVs. It’s a 5.1.3 soundbar, and the bass delivered from the soundbar sub is much better than I would have ever expected. Some quick tips: since you are running Dolby Atmos, you’ll want to use HDMI eARC, and I set my Digital Sound Output to Pass Through just to be safe. Also, you may get prompted and asked if you want to turn on TV Sound Mode Share when setting this up. Select no. This feature processes the sound at the TV level, but sound should pass through directly to the soundbar for processing. Dolby Atmos Flex Connect (DAFC) is where it’s at when it comes to this soundbar. Really, if you are getting this soundbar, you should be planning to add a pair of M5s or the M7 speaker, otherwise you are leaving the best feature on the table. DAFC, along with LG’s Sound Follow calibration, analyzes your room and then dynamically assigns roles to each speaker to create a Dolby Atmos layout. In other words, moving the M5 speakers behind you will make them function as true rear speakers. Move them to the front and it’ll recalibrate and widen the front soundstage. The speakers don’t lose channels though, they just reallocate spatial responsibilities depending on the configuration. The remote control looks identical to the TV remote, which can be a bit confusing. The TV remote controls the speaker with no issues or lag, so the soundbar remote will live in my nightstand drawer for all eternity to avoid confusion. The app is pretty simple to use (LG ThinQ). I found the initial setup to be a little confusing, but still it took only a few minutes to figure it out. One minor gripe is the app only lets you select four colors for the soundbar front light (amber, yellow, red and blue). The LED can clearly support more, as made evident by simply pressing the AI Sound Pro button on the remote, which lights the soundbar up with a rainbow light bar for a brief second. A huge bonus is this soundbar includes a wall mount and mounting template. The template is very important, because the mount has indentations that have to perfectly align to the base of the soundbar, allowing you to secure it to the wall mount via the included screws. My mount gives a bit due to the weight of the soundbar, which creates a slight lean despite being very well secured into my wall. My hope is the LG Sound Suite set will be the beginning of unifying speakers throughout a brand. Historically, we’ve relied on connectivity software from the manufacturer, but in this case, DAFC helps act as the spatial and coordination layer. Imagine how nice it would be to just see “DAFC” on an LG speaker box and know it’s compatible with your current setup. In years past, Bose switched from their older connectivity platform to the Bose Music ecosystem, which turned my pricey soundbar virtually obsolete for scaling out. If we are truly moving toward a more stable, software driven connectivity architecture, we could unify speakers throughout a brand and really create some amazing possibilities. Overall, it’s an unbelievable soundbar and definitely worthy of matching the display quality of my LG OLED. For reference, I have the C5 65” in my photos. I would really only pursue this soundbar if you are aiming to get more Sound Suite speakers though, because otherwise you aren’t going to experience what this system really has to offer

Bought the H7 soundbar with the M7 and M5 speakers and every bit sounds great. Connects easy and allows other speakers to connect quickly with a easy calibration to map the speakers in your room. The soundbar has multiple audio presets which you can choose from such as AI upscale if you want to utilize all the speakers all the time and fills your space much better, but I still prefer the standard mode which makes dialogue and movies sound much clearer and more like how its intended. The dialogue is very clean but can also take advantage of the clear voice pro for sports or news when all you want to hear is dialogue which will get louder but may not sound as clean of audio. The bar itself also has great bass response for the smaller room I placed it in but for those who enjoy more bass I would wait for the subwoofer as I am to hear the full system. Overall sounds great and works perfectly with my LG OLED.

It sounds good, but I do unfortunately have buyer's remorse. I didn't notice that this only had an eARC input and NOT have pass though HDMI, meaning, for those that don't have a WOWcast tv, you'll have at least two cables to your TV. This set me on a backstep and made me more critical that it does not support DTS. NGL, the idea that I could put the speakers anywhere was a big part of my decision as well, but this turned out to be kind of gimicky. Its not going to magically throw sound and make it feel like speakers you placed in front of your listening area are actually behind you. So, you'll end up just moving the speakers back to a normal surround position anyway. If I was able to start over, I'd have spent half as much and just went with the Q990 which my brother has and sounds just as good.

THE best sounding soundbar I’ve ever heard. A lot of bass for a soundbar too, which I was pleasantly surprised. Pair this with 2 M7s and you’re set.

I think my title sums up my thoughts fairly well. This sound bar sounds very good, looks good doing it, and seems to be a part of putting an end to the long and frustrating process of setting up a surround system. Thankfully. I like the look and design. On some level, it is, yes, a sound bar, but it is minimalist, black, and has clean lines. Some would say boring, but it is perfect for me. Exactly what I am looking for. Nice premium and refined materials choices. Additionally, while not really my thing, there is some ambient informative lighting that is done well. All in all, I think it looks great. Install for me was a fairly easy process. Both in terms of connectivity and physically. It was not much more than some plugs and following some directions in the app. While the ThinIQ is not the “best,” it works well and get you where you need to be. I had no issues. I eventually added 2 M5 speakers (which I also reviewed) to this system, where I did have some trouble with the initial connection to WiFi for firmware updates. Not a real concern for me, and have had zero issues since, but something to note. As for sound, well, I think it sounds fantastic. The sound signature is full as is, and I think most would be very pleased. If I HAD to nitpick, the sound is perhaps a bit neutral, but, again, i think very few would even notice. Personally, I really could not be happier. I think it sounds great, and I am using this as part of a larger surround system, where I think it really shines. That said, I do think it does well as a standalone speaker for music, podcasts….etc…as well, even I do not really intend to use it that way. I should note that it does not have built-in voice assistant support, which some may find disappointing. This, on some level, will depend on one’s use case, but for me nearly as important as the sound quality is how easy it is to set up a surround system with this unit, and as part of the larger LG Sound Suite line. Having set up many surround systems in the past, running wire, hiding wire, calibrating, it is almost mind blowing what LG have done with here with the Dolby Atmos Flex Connect (DAFC). Having the ability to run (mostly) wirelessly and have near complete flexibility on speaker placement is something I would have hardly believed not that long ago. It is beyond welcome, and beyond appreciated. Additionally, it is EASY. And, it just works. Via the app you simply add the components, and with some test tones, it all talks to each other, configures and maps everything out. That is mostly really it. As I mentioned, I currently have this H7 Sound Bar running with 2 M5 speakers, and as is, the system has punch and is quite immersive. I will have to decide on the sub when it arrives, but the framework they have put in place here is really something. Running wire, having equipment racks with a dedicated AV receiver, and spending untold hours putting it all together may finally be a thing of the past. The sound quality and ease of use are here now. In the end, I think this is a fantastic sound bar, and I really like it. Both individually, and as a part of a larger surround system. I like its looks; it sounds great and has tremendous flexibility. The fact that it can be used as the “base” for a (Atmos) wireless surround system that also performs well, can be expanded over time, has speaker placement flexibility, AND calibrates so easily only adds to the value I already think is there.

I had been looking for a new sound bar system for my man cave. The room I have set up is not normally shaped and its not possible to set up rear speakers in the normal positions. I was very intrigued by this flex connect system and thought this sound bar might be the answer I was looking for. Out of the box, this sound bar looks and feels amazing. It is solid, I love the design of it, and it would look great sitting under any TV. There is a nice small display screen on one side that shows information such as levels when you change the volume, or the type of connection you have like Bluetooth or HDMI. The sound bar also does come with a remote control, but it doesn’t allow you to access all of the functions with the remote. For that, you will need to connect the sound bar to the LG ThinQ app. In the documentation it says you need a 2.4Ghz signal to connect. We have a tri-band router and found it a little challenging to get it set up initially, and to keep it connected. After talking with LG customer service, they are going to send me a replacement that will hopefully fix the connection issues I was experiencing. It would be best to set up a dedicated 2.4Ghz signal for this sound bar. But note that your phone and the sound bar have to be connected to the same wifi in order to work. Once you get it connected, you will be able to access all of the features of the sound bar. To connect the sound bar to your TV, there is only one HDMI port on the back to use the eARC connection through HDMI to your TV. The sound bar can also be wirelessly connected to devices via Bluetooth. It wound be nice if there was more than 1 HDMI port, and if you use optical audio, you are out of luck as well. When you are all connected, in the app you can fine tune everything. You can chance the sound mode from things like Standard, bass boost, clear voice, and one called AI Sound Pro +. With each of these different modes, you will also be able to adjust the levels of the center, rear, and up-firing speakers as well as the EQ. You can also set up any additional speakers using the Flex Connect system in the app as well and then have it tune itself to your room. There is also an AI Upmix whish is supposed to take standard 2 channel audio and upmix it to make it sound like surround sound. From my testing with this sound bar I think most people will have all of the AI features turned off as they make the sound pretty bad. I found myself using the standard mode, or the custom EQ mode most often. Next, I will get into the most important part of any sound bar, how it sounds. I tried to find the words to describe this as best I could, and I was watching some product videos online about this sound bar and I heard someone refer to the sound as “unnatural” and that is probably the best word I can think of to describe the sound. I cannot say this sound bar sounds bad, because it is a powerful sound bar that has rich bass and good high end and mid drivers. But something about the tuning of this bar is just off. I tried many, many times and went though every setting trying to get a sound that I found pleasing out of this sound bar, and I just could not after many days of trying. When you are watching something like a movie or TV show you want the dialogue to sound like that person is in the room talking to you. With this sound bar the audio was not full and rich, it was kind of tinny and harsh, or completely muddy. There wasn’t really a middle ground I could find that was pleasing to the ear. Music was also very unnatural sounding on every setting. You want music to sound like you are sitting in a concert hall listening to it. This kind of sounded like you were listening to a stereo inside a metal room. For comparison, we also have a Samsung Q990D system as well as a Sonos Arc Ultra in our house as well. Both of those sound significantly better than this LG sound bar. They have nice rich and buttery audio that sound very natural. Although both of those do have subwoofers, so that might be the missing piece to get good sound out of this sound bar. I’m not sure if there is some kind of firmware update that can be done by LG to tune the sound of this bar better that will make it sound better in the future, but as it sits right now, I don’t know if most people will be happy with it. Overall, the flex connect is a very cool concept, and I believe this is the first sound bar to offer it. I just think the technology might need to be tweaked a little more before its ready for prime time.

I used to love the idea of one day wiring my own house with surround sound. Let me explain. When I was in college, having grown up with cobbled together stereo systems, swapping out pieces when another piece of equipment could be added from a flea market or garage sale, I purchased from Walmart for around $40 a 5.1 surround sound system. Obviously, it was terrible. But for the first time ever, I could make my dreams of TRUE surround sound (on a college kid's budget) come true. This would have been circa 2005-2006, and full disclosure, I FINALLY got rid of that awful set nearly 20 years later. I have a particularly fond memory of, in my first house, because my dream of having a man cave was out of my budget, setting up that system in my garage and being able to listen to relatively loud (but awful quality) music while in my backyard. I bring this up because, setting up a surround sound system used to be something I wanted to do. I wanted the budget, I wanted to have to run the wires, position the speakers, deal with the inputs and outputs, balance it through a receiver...because it was COOL. Of course, life sets in, you get kids, life gets busy, and you don't want to even patch a hole in your wall let alone wire a sound system in your living room. Sorry. *Home* t*heater*. ...wire a sound system in your *home* t*heater*... (that sounds so much better). Anyway, imagine my excitement at truly wireless surround sound capabilities with the H7 soundbar as the base! As luck would have it, I recently upgraded my 7-8 year old TV to a 65" LG C5, and the H7 was a perfect match for it. I had been running an older Samsung soundbar with my prior TV, which I carried over into the new setup. (It had both HDMI- and power- passthrough, which was really nice to limit the cables going to my TV. More on that later.) Now for some context, I did not have the best experience setting up my C5 in a couple of areas. It drives me crazy that every TV has to be a smart TV, especially the higher in price and bigger in size you get. I would love it if smart TVs had a 'dumb' mode (we'll see if the censors get that one) that could be a button press or physical switch away. Yet I digress. One area in particular that I found frustrating with the C5 was the sound configuration. The very specific set of settings required to make, for instance, the "AI Mode" sound work was not easily discovered. Enough experimentation got me there, but this wasn't something that I could easily trace a cable to make sure it was connected to the right input. And if you're paying attention, you might see where I'm going. My audio configuration woes continued when I started setup of the H7, something that for a product *specifically designed* for the C5 and G5 series TVs from LG, should have been very simple. First-- there are very limited instructions in the packaging, providing only the most basic setup configuration with pictures and no words. Additional manuals? Nope. Not even a QR code (that I could find). "Download the app" was the answer. And I don't particularly dislike the ThinQ app (which I've always said in my head as "thin-kyoo," although now that I look at it, I wonder if it's intended as "think" phonetically speaking...which is ironic, because if you only "thinq" about traditional speaker setup with wires and physical connections, you'll be lost when you use the app). Online forums, the annoying AI chat thing built in to the app, and a couple of 'unplug everything, reset it all and start over-s' later, my soundbar was up and running. And I'll tell you what--it sounds great. The C5's speaker is borderline abysmal, so it definitely needs some help. Crisp ranges fom low to high, excellent volume range as well (allowing you to have the bar on even at low volumes, late at night when everyone is asleep)... I don't have any complaints about the sound performance. What is missing, especially in this promised world of 'wireless' surround sound, is a mechanism for passing through HDMI and power to reduce the amount of cables between the TV and its inputs/outputs. When I replaced my TV, I spent the extra time to run cables through the wall, so having to refish those to get everything adequately reconnected was a bit annoying. Better, I guess, than having to run speaker wire all over the living roo... ahem, theater...but still. Once it was connected and properly configured, it's been a dream. Add a couple of LG M5 side speakers, and you're living the surround sound dream, [sort of] without having to run any cable. My biggest issue is the setup. It's not rocket science--it wasn't back in the day when we were connecting speaker wires to receivers, and it definitely should not be now. If anything, it should be easier, more accessible by more people, and it's just not. Now's the part where I tell you I work in IT and that I'm relatively up to date on technology and far from technologically inept. And maybe (hopefully, even) your experience will be different from mine. But if I can't expect my dad to be able to figure it out-- the guy who taught me most of what I know about troubleshooting 'everyday' issues in life-- I wouldn't expect the majority of folks to be able to get through it without some frustration. And at $1000 JUST for the soundbar, it really should be easier.