One Of The Best Soundbars I've Tested Is Not Made By Sonos Or Bose (and It's $200 Off)

What's the deal?

LG is selling its S95TR soundbar, with the wireless subwoofer bundled, for $1,299, about $200 off its retail price. It comes bundled with a wireless subwoofer and a pair of wireless up-firing speakers for immersive surround sound.

ZDNET's key takeaways

• The LG S95TR soundbar with wireless subwoofer is optimized for the company's OLED TVs with immersive audio features.
  
  
• The LGS95TR may be expensive, but the high-quality audio is easily worth the price. It's a 9.1.5-channel system ideal for LG's latest TVs.
• The soundbar has many features, but some of the best requires a newer LG TV. The steep price tag could be an issue for many buyers.

LG released the S95TR soundbar earlier this year as a high-end complement to its newest OLED TVs, following much hype. The soundbar and wireless subwoofer setup comes with a host of impressive features, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround sound, and lots of extra features accessible through its app. I recently went hands-on with the soundbar to see if it was worth all the excitement. Let's dig in.

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The S95TR includes four components: a main soundbar, a subwoofer, and two small rear speakers. The subwoofer and rear speakers are wireless, so you don't need additional cords besides the power connections and main HDMI cord. 

The main concern that prevented me from committing to a surround sound setup in the first place was dealing with wires running across my room, so I appreciate that this system is partially wireless.

Unfortunately, you must download the LG Soundbar app to use all the features. It's a little inconvenient that this is separate from the LG ThinQ app that controls LG TVs, especially given that you'll probably use it regularly, but that's a minor quibble.

The setup is simple. After plugging in the speakers in the instructed order, installing the app, and adding the soundbar to the app, the speakers go through a tuning process specific to your room setup. I played a movie before using AI Room Calibration, and I can attest that it made a noticeable difference in how things sound. 

I then used the TV's built-in speakers to get a baseline for testing this soundbar. Over the noise of two kids and a dog in the house, I had to turn the volume more than halfway to hear comfortably: 65 out of 100. Conversely, when I switched the audio to the soundbar, it was more than loud enough in the 40s. Right away, I knew it would be a serious upgrade.   

Also: I changed these 5 soundbar settings for a better TV viewing (and listening) experience

Another thing I like to test with audio equipment is how well it handles dialogue. With my everyday setup, I usually watch everything with captions because it's so easy to miss something.

This soundbar fixes that problem with a small up-firing center speaker in addition to the traditional front ones, something LG claims makes dialogue clearer. When I turned on one of my favorite shows, I noticed a decent improvement over the TV's built-in speakers and a significant improvement over my everyday soundbar's audio. If you struggle to catch every word like I sometimes do, you'll definitely appreciate this feature.

I then ran the soundbar through various movie tests, including action scenes with explosions galore, suspenseful scenes in creepy woods, and dialogue-driven scenes.

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The audio from the S95TR setup makes the background sound realistically stand out. In the second scene in my test, which involved a conversation between people in a car, the ambient road noise wrapped around the back of my couch while the conversation stayed in front of me, just like it would in real life. There was enough of a rumble from the subwoofer to sound like a real road.

In every test, the soundbar setup performed flawlessly, and I heard things that I would have otherwise missed. 

If you're worried about sleeping kids or neighbors, there is a Night Time Mode accessible in the app and via the remote control. This feature keeps the surround sound active, but the subwoofer is noticeably softer. My setup was on a shared wall with my daughter's room, and she didn't complain about late-night movies, so that's a win. 

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Gamers will appreciate 120Hz HDR10 pass-through support, ensuring no delay in getting sound through the speakers. I tried out several games on my PS5, and the experience of each one improved with this system. At one point, a sound behind me was so realistic that my dog shot his head up to see who was there.

ZDNET's buying advice

At first glance, the LG S95TR's retail price of $1,286 might seem a little steep, especially when budget-friendly, wired options are available for under $400 with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. If you're wondering if the LG S95TR system is worth the price, my answer is yes.

The wireless setup is easier than any audio system I've encountered, and the S95TR performed better than any system I've heard before, point-blank. If you built a setup that matched these components, you'd spend more anyway, so the LG S95TR could save you money in that respect. 

Also: This Roku soundbar turned my old TV into the ultimate 4K theater experience 

Remember that although the soundbar setup works with any TV, it works best with LG's B4, C4, and G4 OLED TVs. Without one of those TVs, you'll miss out on some features.