LG S77S  Soundbar Review

It's a simple soundbar with rounded edges to give it a more sleek design than older models like the LG S75Q.

The subwoofer's rounded edges are designed to match those of the soundbar. The port is located in the front.

The bar itself is fairly wide, so it likely won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. Still, since it isn't very tall, it won't obscure your TV screen unless your TV sits flat on the table.

The sub's size is roughly equivalent to an average desktop computer. Since it connects to the bar wirelessly, you have some flexibility when placing it in your living room.

You can mount this bar to the wall using the included brackets.

This setup has a good build quality. The soundbar and the sub are both made of solid, sturdy plastic. On the bar, metal grilles help to protect the drivers inside. There are rubber feet underneath to hold it in place on top of your entertainment stand.

• User manual with mounting template
• 2x Power cables (5 ft / 1.5 m)
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• HDMI cable (5 ft / 1.5 m)
• Mounting brackets with 2x screws

The LG S77S has a decent stereo frequency response. Overall, the bar's sound is fairly neutral, especially in the mids, where most voices and lead instruments are reproduced. A dip in the low-treble hurts their comprehensibility a bit, though. Also, the sub can't reproduce an extended low-bass, so you miss out on some thump and rumble in bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop.

If you prefer a more neutral sound with stereo content, set the bass to +1. This adds a little more punch in the mid-bass to bring genres like EDM and hip-hop to life. You still miss out on the thump and rumble in the low-bass, though. Results can vary depending on the unique acoustics of your room; these settings proved best for our setup.

The LG S77S has a fair stereo soundstage. The soundstage seems to be as wide as the bar itself. Focus is good, so sound effects like voices and footsteps are localized to accurate points within in the soundstage.

The LG S77S gets loud enough to fill larger and more open spaces with sound. There's some compression when you push it to max volume, though.

Distortion falls within good limits when you listen to the bar at normal volumes. As expected, distortion jumps slightly when you push the bar to max volume. Still, this is quite hard to hear with real-life content.

This soundbar has an unconventional design. In addition to a traditional front-firing center channel, it has an up-firing center channel to further improve the quality of vocal reproduction in the mix. So, while it's advertised as a 3.1.3 soundbar, it operates more like a 3.1.2 bar in practice since its third up-firing driver plays the same audio as the center channel instead of height content. The frequency response on both these center channels is quite bright as it lacks a lot of bass, though voices are still relatively clearly and accurately reproduced.

Since it's a 3.1.3 soundbar, it has to downmix 5.1 surround sound content like Dolby Digital into stereo to play it. The resulting sound isn't quite as clear or real as what you get with discrete satellites. Still, the frequency response on these channels is pretty neutral, so sound effects are reproduced with accuracy and clarity.

The LG S77S is advertised as a 3.1.3 bar, but in practice, it operates more like a 3.1.2 setup. That's because only two of the up-firing drivers play height content, while the third plays the same content as the center channel. Unfortunately, the frequency response on these height channels is a bit uneven. There's overemphasis in the mid-bass that adds punch to the mix, while a dip in the high-bass reduces the overall warmth. A peak in the high-mid to low-treble adds a harsh quality to voices.

Besides our tests, we subjectively evaluate the bar's soundstage with height content. Overall, it offers an okay experience, with a noticeable improvement over traditional TV speakers. In particular, the Cinema and AI Sound Pro modes improve the soundstage and offer a better listening experience than Standard mode. Still, the bar's performance isn't quite as impressive as more premium Dolby Atmos bars on the market. It lacks height, which is especially noticeable in scenes where objects come from overhead, like the race scene in Ready Player One. Sound effects like King Kong smashing through the city seem like they're just coming from in front of you, rather than around and above you. It reduces the sense of scale, which takes away from the overall immersion in the scene.

The LG S77S has a decent selection of sound enhancement features, which is typical for bars in this price range. You won't find a room correction feature, so its sound varies a bit depending on the acoustics of your listening space. You can make up for this a bit manually, thanks to its bass and treble adjustments. Preset modes like AI Sound Pro, Standard, Cinema, Clear Voice, Sports, Music, Game, and Bass Blast are also on hand for easier customization. Most of these features are accessible through the LG Sound Bar companion app.

You can connect the bar to your TV using HDMI or Optical connections. Since it has a Full HDMI In port, you can use it as a hub between devices like a PC and a TV, too.

This soundbar supports lots of different audio formats that you're likely to come across on both streaming platforms and Blu-rays via ARC.

Over HDMI In, the LG S77S supports many common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

Via Optical, the bar supports Dolby Digital and DTS content. Dolby Digital is more common on streaming platforms, while you're more likely to come across DTS content on Blu-rays.

Latency falls within good limits over all connections. When you watch videos and movies, audio appears in sync with the visuals on screen. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, though. If you have any issues, the app's AV Sync feature lets you manually compensate for latency.

This soundbar can passthrough many common resolutions and refresh rates, which is great if you want to use it as a hub with PCs or gaming consoles. In an improvement over previous models like the LG S75Q and the LG S95QR, it can passthrough 4k content at 120Hz at 4:2:0 color space. Plus, it can passthrough high-quality video signals like HDR10+ content, which is an improvement over the LG S75Q and ideal for those who want to connect to devices like an Apple TV.

This Bluetooth-compatible soundbar makes it easy to wirelessly stream content from your mobile devices.

The bar doesn't have a display, but three colored LEDs on the front of the bar flash and change colors to indicate its status.

A few touch-sensitive controls on top of the bar let you change basic settings. You can power the bar on/off, change the source, adjust the volume, and activate Bluetooth.

The bar comes with a standard LG remote. You can access many of the same settings through the LG Sound Bar app as well.