If you connect the soundbar to a modern TV via HDMI (it has eARC), you can control the volume immediately with the TV’s remote, but to change settings, you’ll want to use the remote on the soundbar itself (unless you own an LG TV). It also supports things like Tidal Connect Dolby Vision pass-through, making it a great bar for streaming music or hooking up your disc player for full bitrate video (and audio).
Press the play button
I had the pleasure of testing this system alongside LG’s new C4 OLED, which can add even more channels to the mix by contributing its own TV speakers to boost the center channel and make it sound a bit more like the voices are coming directly from the picture.
The wide 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 conveyed by the bar, subwoofer and satellite speakers. When my wife switches back to RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m immediately drawn back into the action on the screen, with more traditional three-channel TV audio that’s engaging and dynamic, but feels much smaller in your room.
Photo: Parker Hall
You can adjust the sound modes on the bar, but I tend to use the default settings except when watching movies, where I’ve experimented with (and occasionally opted for) Cinema mode, which, as far as I can tell, pushes a bit more sound to the surround and height channels.
Standard mode essentially listens to everything the TV tells it, so it works great with LG’s AI processing in newer TV models. With this and the C4, it’s essentially a “turn it on and forget it’s there” feel, which is something I prefer with my home theater systems. There’s nothing worse than having to open cabinets and push buttons and wait for things to turn on and recognize each other. You really can’t overstate how well it worked (and how oddly rare that experience is in the A/V space).
This model’s direct competitor is Samsung’s Q990D ($1,700), which I must admit I prefer in some ways. The LG’s audio profile can be a bit thinner and brighter than Samsung’s, and I find Samsung’s model bounces sound off the walls a bit better, giving a wider soundstage. Given how well the S95TR integrates with newer LG TVs, I’d probably choose this over the Samsung Bar if I were buying an LG TV, and likewise the Samsung Bar if I were buying a Samsung TV.
As far as easy (and, let’s face it, not ridiculously expensive) ways to fill a room with a pretty good approximation of what you’d experience in an A/V nerd’s den go, I think LG really hit the nail on the head here. If I were buying a C4 and didn’t have a proper sound system to go with it, I’d really look into this.
