LG - 9.1.5-Channel S95TR Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers, Dolby Atmos and WOW Orchestra - Black

If it was not for the sales person at Best Buy, Mr. Constantine. I would have spent more money and brought A BOSE soundbar. With this LG system I have my own Home Theater System. The sound is Impeccable !!!!

TLDR: A versatile system that is extremely easy to set-up and is wire-free (minus power). It does not have the best audio quality compared to the big player in the market but does a good job a providing an enveloping surround sound environment with an app that is easy to use and navigate. However, the remote and LED display are useless. INSTALLATION AND SETUP I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to set-up the new S95TR. After unplugging my existing soundbar and plugging the HDMI cable into the appropriate eARC/ARC port in the LG, supplying power, things went very smoothly. The soundbar, sub, and surround configuration is accomplished through LG’s minimalist LG Soundbar App. This is not a ding on LG. Quite the opposite. The app is easy to use and understand without a bunch of fuss and bloatware. Settings, functions, etc. are easily accessible via a one-page interface, with more detailed adjustments available in the simple to access and find settings menu. After my current soundbar underwent a major app design overhaul this spring, I am happy to report that LG’s app is much easier to use than their primary competitor. While I don’t consider the app and the accompanying documentation perfect, LG has done a good job at streamlining the process. However, this isn’t to say that they couldn’t print a QR code or two in their literature to link you directly to the Play Store or Apple App Store. Come on LG. Not sure what to expect, I installed the soundbar and powered it up. The LG app recognized the speaker after a few seconds and immediately downloaded a mandatory firmware update. No issues. The update installed without drama and after only a couple of minutes, the soundbar rebooted and was good to go. The simplicity LG designed into the S95 and the app is impressive. Unlike some of their competition that requires you to manually pair their companion sub and surrounds, LG needs no extra steps. Getting the whole system up and running was frustration-free. After being plugged in, the sub and the surround sound speakers paired at once to the soundbar. Outstanding work LG. USE The S95 pairs nicely to my existing LG OLED TV, even with it being several years old and one of the first few generations. The TV recognized the soundbar and was easily setup to use the ARC channel for audio. Buyers of newer LG TVs can use the super slick Wowcast feature and eliminate the hardwired connection altogether. Sweet. LG’s wireless communications protocol is robust and dynamic. The 4 speakers (soundbar, sub, 2 surrounds) blend together with no discernible lag or awkward timing imbalance. While I could not find specs on the system, the surrounds appear to support the full audio spectrum 20Hz – 20kHz, or close enough that the sub can pick up for what they lack. Sound is enveloping. LG offers a variety of listening modes, which I find are mostly a gimmick. I find the AI Sound Pro my most used listening mode. Other modes just make the audio sound un-natural and sadly, muted. One thing I find odd, is that by default the surround function is turned off when setting up the system. While this may be the “proper” way to use the S95, I find it odd that LG wouldn’t showcase the surrounds and have them on by default. For those that have a home theater AVR, this setting enables “All Channel Stereo” or “Multi-Channel Stereo” to use the setting name from a competitor. NEGATIVES LG has tried too hard to copy their greatest home streaming speaker ecosystem. The minimalist approach to the S95 doesn’t work nearly as well as the competition. The 3 multi-colored LED’s on the front panel of the S95 do absolutely nothing to help out. After installing and trying the speakers, I still have no idea what the different colors really mean or why I would even care. I agree with what others have said around the interwebs, to make the soundbar great, LG needs to have a better display or eliminate the LED’s all together. I get why they are there. My current big name streaming system gives no feedback without directly using the app. LG has tried to remedy this problem by installing the 3 LED’s, but the end result is lackluster and unhelpful. A mark missed. This missed mark also extends to the remote control. With minimal feedback offered via the LED’s using the remote to change functions and control the soundbar turns into a guessing game. To me the remote is useless. It easier just to use the app to get what you want versus the remote. It’s easier, eliminates guesswork, and provides feeback that your commands were sent and recognized. While the LG offers a plethora of channels, the overall sound quality from each of those channels are not as good as my primary soundbar’s drivers. The LG sounds overly bright, thin, and tinny. Not horrible, or fingernails on a chalkboard, but none the less are inferior to their streaming rival’s products. I think some of this awkwardness could be tuned out via a firmware update, but as used and configured with the LG room correction app, the drivers and audio sound harsher than the competition. Lastly, I have to comment on LG’s poor mounting solution for their soundbar. I’ve sound bars from 4 different manufacturers now and the LG implementation ties as the worst. Not only are the mounting brackets for the soundbar and surrounds ugly, but the soundbar’s mounting locations are in the wrong place for the American market. The soundbar’s mounting holes are 35” apart, center-to-center. National building code requires wall studs a maximum of 16” on center. This squarely places one or both the mounting brackets out of location of a stud, and if mounting on drywall, forces the buyer to utilize a less than ideal drywall anchor to mount at least one of the two brackets. LG’s competitors have a much better bracket to mount their product, especially the biggest player in the home speaker streaming market. Their bracket is thinner, spans the entire length of the soundbar and is nearly invisible once installed and the speaker mounted. Even with the S95 mounted, the brackets look like cheap after thoughts. FINAL THOUGHTS LG has done a good job of updating its S95 lineup. There are a lot of channels to take advantage of the latest and greatest Dolby Atmos mixes in music and movies. Channel timing is spot on with no discernible lag between the sound and video, at least in my use. Setup is simple and LG should be commended for streamlining the entire process like they have done. The app is easy to use and understand with all the basics and little to no fluff to add confusion. To make things even easier, LG has even included an AI Room Calibration feature to their app. It works as intended, even if more rudimentary than the competition. While I find the sound quality of my current soundbar superior to the LG, it doesn’t make the S95 bad. It is just a matter of preference. Honestly, my current system should sound better, as I’ve paid more for just the soundbar and sub than this whole LG system retails for. The difference in price helps overcome the perceived thinness (and at times, tinniness) of the LG drivers. Owners looking for a premium system to complement their TV should put this on their list of auditions. The LG S95 offers a full surround experience in one easy-to-use, tidy, package. RECOMMENDED

I was really looking forward to trying out this soundbar system because my previous soundbar "simulated" surround sound using the speakers in the soundbar itself (which sit directly under my television). While the technology that allows that is pretty impressive, it has been my experience that even the best soundbars cannot compete with rear speakers for creating a truly immersive audio experience. To begin, when opening the box, I was disappointed to see "waves" in the grill that extends along the front of the soundbar. The waves start in the middle of the soundbar and extend to the left side (yet are not present on the right). I would say that the soundbar may have been damaged in transport, but the box was in good condition without any noticeable damage. Therefore, I cannot help but wonder if it was damaged prior to being boxed up (or maybe there was some type of manufacturing issue)? Not sure if it shows up in the picture attached to the review, but the shadows created in the grille by nearby lights are very prominent and easy to see (they look like dents in the speaker grille). Luckily, as far as I can tell, the performance of the soundbar and its speakers are not impacted by this seemingly cosmetic flaw. Unlike my previous soundbar with a subwoofer, there are no wires needed to connect the soundbar to the subwoofer (or any of the surround speakers, for that matter). While each speaker (the soundbar, the subwoofer, and the two surround speakers) must be plugged in to A/C power, they connect to each other wirelessly. While I was a little worried at how challenging it was going to be to ensure the speakers are all connected to each other (there are "connect" buttons on the back of the accessory speakers), that particular process was literally plug and play. I plugged the power in for each speaker (in the order stated in the directions) and they all connected to each other automatically. The setup of the system itself does require a smartphone (or tabled) to download the LG Soundbar app. (I already had the app from a previous LG soundbar, so all I had to do was click the "plus" button at the top to add another soundbar system to the app.) I did receive a notice in the app that the LG Soundbar app will be going away and I will have to transition my soundbar systems over to LG's ThinQ app at some point. (Now is not that time, however, as the ThinQ app does not appear to incorporate soundbars yet [at least at the time I started using the system and wrote this review].) The setup was actually pretty simple. Make sure the soundbar is in bluetooth mode, connect to your phone, and open the app. There is a calibration routine that you can run, which was helpful for me in that it told me I had the location of my rear speakers reversed (I had the right on the left and the left on the right). I initially had the surround speakers on the floor behind some furniture, which was a problem. The calibration process told me that there were items in the way of the speakers and I needed to provide a clear area around the speakers. Because power is required, it was not as easy as just mounting the speakers to a wall, however, without having to either run an outlet to the speaker or have an unsightly cord dangling down the wall. I wound up moving some things around and placing the surround speakers on a few hip-height pieces of furniture. (This is not really a criticism, by the way, as wired surround speakers require running speaker wire to them and there is no way I want to have to worry about replacing batteries all the time in a battery-powered speaker [although, I am not even sure if they make battery-powered surround speakers].) Once completed with the calibration, the app allows for fine-tuning by changing the volume associated with each speaker (or group of speakers). There are also different sound effect presets that can be used (such as standard, cinema, clear voice pro, sports, music, game, and bass blast). Personally, I leave the system on "AI Sound Pro" to have the system determine what would be the most appropriate given what I am watching or listening to. The system can use bluetooth, optical, wi-fi, USB, or HDMI inputs for sound. Chromecast functionality is built in and the system also works with Amazon Alexa, if so desired. It is also supposed to work with Spotify and Apple AirPlay, but I have not tested either of these features as I use the soundbar predominantly with my television (and not as a audio/music system). One of the things that I found kind of annoying is that I use an Apple TV along with the ARC function on my television. When I start up the system, it takes a bit before there is any audio (and when the system is figuring it out, the picture goes in-and-out two or three times). Sometimes (and I don't know if there is any rhyme or reason), the audio never comes on and I have to grab my phone to use the Soundbar app to change the inputs from ARC to something else, and then back to ARC, which then seems to fix the problem. My television is relatively new and my Apple TV is one of the most current versions (all of them have the most recent firmware installed), so I do not know if the problem is with the soundbar system, my television, the Apple TV, or a combination of the above. I did occasionally (not often or routinely) have a somewhat similar problem with my previous soundbar, though, so I guess this may be par for the course with these systems? While this may sound dumb, another challenge I have is that the controls for the soundbar are on the top and they are pretty sensitive to touch, including cat paws. When my cat jumps up on the soundbar, she winds up pressing different buttons on the top an I have to scramble for my phone (and the app) to try and fix whatever it is she just did. At the end of the day, the last question is how the system sounds? As I am writing this review, my TV (and the soundbar) is to my left and my surround speakers are to the right. The commentators of the basketball game I have on are talking from the television and I can hear the crowd noise through the surround speakers. Watching TV and movies is a joy with this system as well. The bass is rich (and can be adjusted through the subwoofer's volume setting in the app) and the surround sound is much better than anything that comes from a standalone soundbar (without surround speakers). Ultimately, I am very happy with this system, but could not bring myself to give five stars given the physical damage to the unit (which may have been an anomaly) and the "startup" issues that I mentioned when I turn everything on. Actually, I would probably give 4.5 stars if I could, but given those issues, it was enough for me to round down to four rather than up to five. Ultimately, though, the system has good, rich sound and the separate surround speakers really makes a difference.