Review: LG S95TR 9.1.5 Soundbar System

Plugging in the soundbar through HDMI (it features eARC) to any modern TV means that you can immediately use the TV remote to control audio volume, but you will want to use the remote on the soundbar itself (unless you own an LG TV), to change settings. It does also support things like Tidal Connect Dolby Vision pass-through, which makes it a great bar to stream music to, or plug your disc player in for full-bitrate video (and audio).

Pressing Play

I had the pleasure of reviewing this system alongside LG’s new C4 OLED, which can add even more channels to the mix, 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 image.

The huge array of speakers and the volume they can produce means you really get a sense of scale when scenes change, or when you go from one type of thing to another. When playing modern classics like Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road, you feel the immensity of the scenes in the audio profile that the bar, subwoofer, and satellite speakers convey. When my wife switches back over to RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m immediately sucked back into what’s happening onscreen, with more traditional three-channel TV audio that’s absorbing and dynamic, but much smaller-feeling in your space.

You can adjust sound modes on the bar, but I tend to err on the side of standard settings except when watching a film, where I experimented (and occasionally settled on) the Cinema mode, which passes a bit more sound to the surround and height channels, near as I can tell.

Standard mode essentially listens to whatever the TV is telling it to do, which makes it play super nice with LG’s AI processing inside late-model TVs. With this and the C4, it’s essentially a “turn on and forget it’s there” vibe, which is what I prefer in my home theater systems. There is nothing worse than having to open cabinets and hit buttons and wait for things to turn on and see each other. It really can’t be overstated how well it worked (and how rare an experience this is, oddly, in A/V land).

The direct competitor to this model is Samsung’s Q990D ($1,700), which, I have to admit, I prefer in some ways. The audio profile of the LG can be a bit thinner and more bright than Samsung’s, and I find that Samsung’s model bounces sound off the walls a bit better for a wider soundstage. That said, given how well the S95TR integrates with late-model LG TVs, I’d probably choose this over the Samsung bar if I was buying the LG TV, and likewise buy the Samsung bar if I was buying a Samsung TV.

As far as simple (and, let’s be honest, not heinously expensive) ways to outfit a room with a pretty solid approximation of what they’d experience in an A/V nerd’s cave, I think LG has really nailed it here. If I was buying a C4 and didn’t have a proper sound system to pair it with, I’d really be looking at this.