LG’s new flagship sound bar for 2022, the S95QR, features five up firing drivers, including one for the center channel, to deliver an immersive experience. Along with AirPlay 2 and Chromecast connectivity, the S95QR also includes a room adjustment feature driven by AI that modifies the sound of the sound bar to match the acoustics of your home theatre. ..
LG S95QR review: Design
LG’s S95QR sound bar is a 47-inch-wide, 2.5-inch-tall device that is designed to fit under most TVs. It features three up-firing height drivers that allow it to produce powerful sound. ..
The LG S95QR is a sound bar that comes with a lot of features, including touch buttons for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, input selection, volume, and play/pause. The hardwired power cord is detachable, so you can place it where you want it and have it connected to your TV. We were disappointed that the cord on the S95QR was complicated to put together and remove.
The fabric grille conceals a small alphanumeric display that provides information about your settings, but most of the time it just indicates which input you are using (HDMI 1, ARC, Wi-Fi, and more). Given that it is always in the forefront, it dims automatically after a short period of time but you cannot turn it off, which we found to be occasionally distracting. This will be fixed in a subsequent firmware update, according to LG. You can definitely get creative with the positioning of the wireless subwoofer due to its front-ported, side-firing design, but not too creatively, since you don’t want to block that large circular grille.
The sound bar’s accompanying wireless surrounds stand out from the crowd since they not only include two full-range drivers that are oriented away from one another but also their own up-firing height drivers. Since they are larger, more omnidirectional speakers, you can place them behind or behind your viewing chairs, which smaller, more directional speakers couldn’t exactly do as well. However, it also means that they are significantly larger than conventional sound bar surrounds, making it difficult to find a place for them if you don’t plan to wall-mount them.
Usability
The S95QR is a great wireless speaker system that is easy to set up and use. The LG Sound Bar is also a simple to use device, but it can be more complicated than using the remote control.
LG S95QR review: Features
The FEM amplifier will improve the signal between the system’s wireless circuits and antenna, which is another improvement for the S95QR’s satellite speakers. This means that no matter how big your living room is, the connection to both the wireless subwoofer and surrounds should be more stable, while better signal sensitivity and an extended transmission distance from roughly 19m to an astonishing 30m makes the speakers easier to position.
The LG S95QR is a great sound bar that has a wealth of connectivity options. It includes Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, and Chromecast support. You can control your streaming service, change the sound mode, and adjust the volume with your voice. There are eARC, optical, and USB inputs for hardwired connections, as well as two additional HDMI passthrough ports that offer gaming capabilities including (VRR) and (ALLM). However, only 60Hz is supported for 4K HDR streams.
The LG WOWCAST audio dongle allows you to wirelessly stream multi-channel music from your TV and sound bar. The dongle is available for £100 (about $135/AU$188). With WOWCAST, you can enjoy Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS:X, and DTS-HD Master Audio immersive sound formats.
LG’s new S95QR TV uses Meridian Audio’s Horizon technology to upmix two-channel audio to 7.1 channels in music mode. This allows you to enjoy richer, more immersive sound when watching movies or listening to music on the TV. If you purchase an LG TV and a 2022 sound bar, you can pair the two and use Sound Share to enable the TV’s more advanced software to take over processing responsibilities. ..
The S95QA has an easy-to-use room calibration system built in, but it also gives customers a tone of options for customizing the sound with channel level controls, EQ, and a choice of seven different sound profiles. Except for cinema for films and music for music, we’d avoid practically all of these.
Connectivity
The Samsung S95QR doesn’t seem to differ all that much from the SN11RG, which is two years older. We do receive two HDMI inputs, one HDMI output, one optical digital audio input, and a single USB connection for streaming media from an external storage device. That’s all there is. ..
All HDMI ports are the older HDMI 2.0 variety, which means they can’t support 4K@120Hz. This means that if you want to connect your gaming console to the sound bar for high frame rate gaming, you’ll have to connect it to the TV first and then use the eARC. However, this year all ports support VRR and ALLM, so if you don’t care about high frame rate gaming but still want to use the sound bar with your console, connecting it before the TV will be advantageous for you. ..
The TV has two HDMI ports, one for output and one for input. If you have more devices to connect but only have two inputs, that could be a problem. If this is the case, you must use the HDMI ports on the TV to fix the issue; otherwise, an HDMI switch will be required.
LG S95QR review: Controls
The LG Sound Bar control software will likely be used to select sound presets and modify speaker volume to match the currently playing content. Once we were able to get the app to recognize our home network and establish a connection with the wireless sound bar, it was rather simple to use, although it took some time and the unclear instructions made it difficult.
The sound bar has a few touch-capacitive control buttons on the center of the device. There is a small display on the front that shows what format the sound bar is decoding audio signals, but it is limited because it only shows a few characters at a time. You have to wait for three or four letters to scroll by at a time to see what format is being decoded or what sound preset is chosen. ..
We found that the Apple Music playback app was very easy to use with a handheld remote control, and we were able to make rapid adjustments to the volume level overall. The Samsung TV remote also proved useful for making rapid adjustments to the volume level overall. ..
Sound Quality
The S95QR is the perfect sound bar for watching movies and playing video games. It has a strong sound, an expansive soundstage, and no distortions or imbalance.
The sound bar in this home is amazing! It’s strong impactful soundtrack moments and subtlest details make it a great choice for movie lovers.
The sound bar from Samsung is a marvel. It can project sound so far from all four of its structural components, successfully enveloping you in a three-dimensional audio environment with Dolby Atmos mixes that you no longer notice the speakers’ presence. The sound quality is excellent, and it’s perfect for watching movies or listening to music.
The LG V30’s new subwoofer is great for action scenes with lots of bass and presence, but it can also be more flexible when it comes to adjusting its weight and depth to keep up with subtle shifts in a scene’s dynamics.
LG’s new S95QR is a powerful phone that has a great sound quality.
Price
The LG S95QR is a Dolby Atmos sound bar that includes a main sound bar, a wireless subwoofer, and two wireless rear speakers. With side-firing drivers on the rears (a feature already used by its rival Samsung) and an upward-firing Centre channel that LG claims is a global first, it improves on the brand’s prior versions.
The LG S95QR is a new 7.1.4 channel speaker that replaces the 7.1.4 channel SP11RA that debuted in 2021 and initially cost £1500/$1700/AU$1849 but is now available with about 30% reduction. The Samsung Q990B Dolby Atmos sound bar, which has an even greater channel count as an 11.1.4 package and costs £1600, $1900, or AU$2200, is directly priced to compete with this product. ..
Conclusion
The LG S95QR sound bar is a great option for a variety of uses. It has an excellent 9.1.5 setup with incredibly adaptable performance, so it sounds amazing with everything from TV shows to music to movies. It also has a boomy sound out of the box with a lot of extra emphasis in the bass area, but you can adjust it to your needs with the bass and treble controls.
The audio quality of this movie is excellent. The dialogue is audible and present, and the bass is very rumble. Numerous audio formats are supported, including Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital.
