LG S75Q Soundbar Review

The LG S75Q is a simple soundbar with a similar design to the LG SP8YA. It's mostly plastic, and there are two metal grilles on top of the bar where the up-firing drivers are located. While the SP8YA has rounded corners, the S75Q's corners are square.

The subwoofer has a sleek all-black plastic design. There's fabric covering the front, too. The port is located on the back.

This setup doesn't come with satellites. We purchased the SPQ8-S Rear Speaker Kit separately, but when we tried to connect it to the bar, it didn't work. It doesn't seem to be an issue with the speakers themselves, as they connected to the LG S80QY without issue. If you've tried this setup yourself, we'd love to hear about your experience in the discussion section below.

The LG S75Q is fairly wide, and it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. That said, it's not very tall, so it doesn't obscure your TV screen.

The sub is about the size of an average desktop computer, and it connects to the bar wirelessly.

The LG S75Q has a good build quality. The bar is mostly plastic, which feels solid and durable. The sub is also plastic. There's fabric on the front, and it's tight, so it isn't likely to rip. It can collect dust over time, though.

• Manual with mounting template
• 2x power cables (3.2 ft / 1m and 4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Adapter for the soundbar (cable length of 4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Mounting brackets with screws

The LG S75Q has a decent stereo frequency response out-of-the-box. It has a fairly balanced mid-range that reproduces clear vocals and lead instruments. The treble range is slightly recessed, though, so instruments are pushed towards the back of the mix with certain tracks. It doesn't reproduce a lot of low-bass, either, so you don't feel the thump in bass-heavy music.

With its bass set to '0' and its treble set to '5', the LG S75Q has a satisfactory stereo frequency response. It has a more neutral, balanced sound profile with balanced mid and treble ranges, so voices and lead instruments are clear and detailed. That said, bass adjustment features can't make up for the lack of low-bass, so you still don't feel the rumble in bass-heavy genres like EDM.

The LG S75Q has a decent stereo soundstage. The soundstage is perceived to be a touch wider than the bar, but it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. The focus is decent, and sound effects seem to come from a more general area as opposed to an accurate, pinpoint location.

The LG S75Q has a great stereo dynamics performance. The bar gets loud, filling up larger, open living rooms with sound. Updating the bar to firmware version B230411A improved its performance quite a bit, especially regarding compression. There's a bit when the bar is pushed to max volume, but it's not very noticeable.

The LG S75Q has a decent stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. There's a jump in distortion at max volume, which audiophiles are more likely to notice. That said, casual listeners who rarely crank up the volume aren't likely to notice any issues.

The LG S75Q has a good center channel performance. With its discrete center channel, dialogue reproduces with clarity and accuracy, and voices are localized to pinpoint locations within the soundstage. Its frequency response on this channel is quite balanced in the mids, so voices are clear, but the dip in the mid-treble means they lack some detail.

The LG S75Q has a poor surrounds performance. It's a 3.1.2 setup, so it has to downmix surround sound into stereo to play it. As a result, it doesn't seem like the action is taking place all around you—it just seems like your movie is playing from a speaker in front of you. The LG S75QR has satellite speakers, offering better performance with surround sound.

The LG S75Q has two up-firing drivers built into the bar to simulate height with Atmos content. The frequency response of these channels is quite uneven, though, especially in the low-mids and the treble. Some details are less clear in the mix as a result. Also, we subjectively evaluated the bar's Atmos performance to get a sense of its overall soundstage and immersive feel. The results were okay, but nothing special. Most of the sound seems like it's coming from the space in front of you, but it doesn't do much to spread the effects to the space around you, which is typical for a bar without satellites. You don't notice a lot of height, either, or sound behind your couch.

The LG S75Q has a satisfactory selection of sound enhancement features. You can customize its sound using features like its bass and treble adjustments or its EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Bass Blast', 'AI Sound Pro', 'Cinema', 'Sports', 'Game', 'Clear Voice', and 'Music'. The 'Cinema' preset doubles as a virtual surround mode that creates a more three-dimensional sound, and the 'Clear Voice' preset enhances dialogue. If you choose to add on rear satellites, you can adjust the rear levels. Most of these features are accessible in the LG Sound Bar app. Unlike the Samsung HW-Q60B, there's no graphic EQ available, though, and you won't find a room correction mode unless you upgrade to the LG S80QY.

Like many other soundbar manufacturers, LG offers a feature that lets you pair the bar with compatible LG TVs - it's called TV Sound Mode Share. Check your TV's Sound Menu to make sure you're in 'Enjoy Soundbar Sound Mode' instead of 'Enjoy TV Sound Mode' to get the feature to work - otherwise, it might downmix higher-quality formats like Dolby Atmos into PCM content. The manufacturer says that this feature enhances the sound quality, but like most of these features, there isn't much of a difference in the sound with it turned on.

You can connect the LG S75Q to your TV over HDMI and Optical connections. It even comes with an HDMI cable, which is handy. Also, the manufacturer says that you can use its WOWCAST device to wirelessly connect the bar to a compatible LG TV. The feature was only available in Europe at the time we tested the bar. You can still plug the bar into your TV using a cable.

The LG S75Q has fantastic audio format support via ARC, and it supports lots of different formats from Dolby Digital surround sound to lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The LG S75Q has fantastic audio format support via Full HDMI In. It supports common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The LG S75Q supports both Dolby Digital and DTS via Optical. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format, and it's found on lots of streaming services. DTS is less common on its own, but it's often used as a fallback for higher-quality DTS-HD MA formatted Blu-ray discs.

The LG S75Q has a great latency performance, especially after updating the bar to firmware version B230411A. It has fairly low latency, so the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see. You can use the app's AV Sync feature to reduce lag. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your experience can vary.

The LG S75Q can passthrough high-quality bandwidth signals, so when you connect the bar between your TV and your PC, text on the screen is clear and crisp. There's Dolby Vision Passthrough support, too, but you can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz.

The LG S75Q lets you wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar via Bluetooth.

There's a small display screen on the front of the bar, located behind the metal grille. When you change a setting like the input or the volume level, it shows on the screen.

Some touch-sensitive buttons on top of the bar let you power it on/off, change the input, adjust the volume, and activate Bluetooth. If you don't want to leave your couch, you can also access these features from the remote or the LG Sound Bar app.

The LG S75Q comes with a standard LG soundbar remote. It's pretty simple, and it lets you access basic features like the volume and the input. The LG Sound Bar app also lets you access additional features through your phone, such as AV Sync.