LG’s new flagship soundbar packs a lot in
Product | £1700 | whf.cm/LGS95QR
There seems to be a bit of an arms race going on with Dolby Atmos soundbars at the moment. In an effort to one-up the competition, big brands are cramming their latest and greatest soundbars with more and more drivers in new and unexpected places. It has echoes of the early 2000s when the world of men’s shaving was rocked by a similar war of creative innovation and capitalism as manufacturers competed to sell razors with increasing numbers of blades.
But, just as a close shave is due as much to the quality of the blade as the number, an excess of drivers pointing in every possible direction does not guarantee better home cinema sound.
The LG S95QR is LG’s flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar for 2022, boasting a massive 17 drivers in a 9.1.5 configuration; it is a multi-speaker package comprising a primary soundbar, wireless subwoofer and two wireless rear speakers. It ups the ante on the brand’s previous models with the addition of side-firing drivers on the rears (a feature already employed by its rival Samsung) as well as an upward-firing centre channel that LG claims is a world first.
Costing £1700, the LG S95QR supersedes the 7.1.4 channel SP11RA, and is priced to compete directly with Samsung’s premium £1600 Q990B Dolby Atmos soundbar, which has an even higher channel count as an 11.1.4 package.
The S95QR has a not particularly premium-looking grey finish and a more angular appearance than its predecessor. More significant, however, are the internal changes that have been made to help boost the bar’s performance. LG has improved its speaker design, increasing the dimensions of its racetrack drivers for a more powerful performance.
Under the skin
The main soundbar contains 10 drivers in total, with left and right channels handled by two 20mm silk-dome tweeters and two 52 x 99mm woofers. A pair of 50mm drivers, on either end of the soundbar, delivers surround side effects, while two 63mm units on the top surface supply height effects for immersive sound formats.
In the centre, a 63mm driver faces forward, which couples with a 20mm silk-dome tweeter on the top surface. Unlike the system’s other height drivers, this tweeter does not produce Atmos effects. Instead, it supplements the traditional front-facing driver for better dispersion and greater dialogue clarity.
The wireless subwoofer has also been modified from previous generations, its driver increasing from 18 to 20 cm. This element certainly feels a bit more substantial and less of a
