LG S80QR  Soundbar Review

This soundbar is mostly made of plastic, and fabric covers the front and the sides. On top of the bar, three circular metal grilles cover the up-firing drivers.

The sub is fairly plain. The speaker on the side is covered with fabric.

The LG SPQ8-S are speakers with a similar build to the soundbar itself. They're mostly made of plastic, and fabric covers the front and the sides. They connect to a wireless receiver that's made of the same plastic. If you'd prefer not to deal with an extra box, the LG S80TR is the successor to this soundbar and offers wireless connections to the subwoofer and satellites without the need for an extra box.

The bar itself is fairly wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. However, since it isn't very tall, it won't block your TV screen.

The sub's size is comparable to an average desktop computer. Since it's wireless, you have lots of flexibility when putting it in your living room.

The speakers have a similar size compared to other models on the market. However, you have to wire them to the included wireless receiver, which limits their placement a bit.

The wireless receiver module is 6.9" (17.5 cm) wide, 2.3" (6 cm) tall, and 7.2" (18.3 cm) deep.

The build quality is great overall. The speakers and the bar itself have a similar design, with a sturdy and solid plastic build. Also, the fabric on the sides has a tight fit, so it doesn't seem likely to rip. The subwoofer feels sturdy, too.

• Manuals
• 3x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• Mounting brackets with screws
• Mounting template
• 2x satellite speaker wires (16 ft / 4.9m)
• Ferrite core

The LG S80QR has a very good stereo frequency response. A room calibration tool is available to optimize its output based on your room's unique characteristics. With it on, the bar has a decent overall sound, with a clear and accurate reproduction of voices and lead instruments that makes it suitable for listening to most types of audio content. However, there's a little extra emphasis in the high-bass that adds a bassy quality to certain tracks and a dip in the low-treble that pushes higher-pitched instruments like cymbals toward the back of the mix. You also don't notice as much rumble in the low-bass as with other premium setups, though it does better than comparable models like the LG S75QR.

Note: There's a slight difference in the slope between the LG S80QY on its own and the same bar with the LG SPQ8-S speaker kit. It's likely due to testing variation and possible differences in the acoustic characteristics of our testing room during the room calibration process. Still, you aren't likely to notice a major difference in stereo sound with or without the speaker kit.

If you prefer a more balanced sound with stereo content, set the bass to -3 and the treble to 3. The resulting sound is more even, with less boom in the high-bass, so you don't notice as much of a bassy sound with certain tracks. The added emphasis in the treble brings more accuracy to the reproduction of higher-pitched sounds like cymbals.

The LG S80QR has a decent stereo soundstage. The soundstage is perceived to be a bit wider than the bar, but it doesn't have any tricks to make it stretch past that. Also, unlike the Samsung HW-Q700C with SWA-9500S, sound objects like instruments seem to come from more general areas in the space around you rather than from pinpoint locations.

The LG S80QR gets fairly loud, so it fills average living rooms with sound easily. Plus, as you push it to max volume, there isn't a lot of compression, so audio reproduction remains clean and pure.

The LG S80QR has a fair stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion falls within good limits, so audio is reproduced with clarity. While there's a slight jump when you push the bar to max volume, it's important to remember that distortion is really hard to hear with real-life content.

This soundbar's unique design includes a traditional front-firing center channel as well as an up-firing center channel on top of the bar. Overall, its center channel performance is great. Thanks to its balanced response, voices are clear and present in the mix, and it's easy to follow along with the action on screen. However, the additional center channel doesn't make the bar's performance stand out⁠—in fact, its performance is similar to other bars on the market with only one front-firing center channel.

The added speakers make a noticeable difference in the bar's surrounds performance compared to the standalone LG S80QY. Thanks to its discrete surrounds, audio seems more clear and real in the space around you. Sound effects are localized to more accurate positions within the space around your couch, so you get more of a feeling of action taking place all around you. That said, the uneven graph means that certain frequencies are more pronounced than others, making it seem as if some details are more emphasized than others in the mix.

The LG S80QR has three up-firing drivers. Two of them ricochet sound off the ceiling to create the illusion of height, while the up-firing center driver only plays center content. While the bar's performance isn't as real-sounding as what you get with a dedicated home theater setup, it still does a fair job compared to other soundbars. Dialogue and other sound effects are fairly clear in the mix, and the sub brings some rumble in the low-bass during action-packed scenes.

Subjectively, the added speakers improve the bar's Atmos performance compared to the standalone bar. Sound effects seem to stretch to the space around your couch, so you feel like the action is taking place all around you. That said, it's not quite as impressive as other premium setups on the market, as it struggles to replicate sounds that are meant to come above you, like drones flying past. Some details seem to be emphasized more than others, as suggested by the uneven frequency response. Unfortunately, this makes it feel like the rears aren't properly integrated into the sound.

The LG S80QR comes with a lot of sound enhancement features to help you switch up its sound. Like other premium setups, its AI Room Calibration feature adjusts the bar's output based on your room's unique acoustics, which you can activate through the app. There are bass and treble adjustments on hand, too, as well as some EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Bass Blast', 'AI Sound Pro', 'Cinema', 'Sports', 'Game', 'Clear Voice', and 'Music'.

It's not uncommon to see soundbars with special features that allow you to integrate your setup with a TV from the same brand. This bar is no different, as it supports LG's TV Sound Mode Share for enhanced sound. Unfortunately, like most of these features, it doesn't change the sound quality⁠—there's hardly any difference in the frequency response or the soundstage as a result. If you use the bar with another brand's TV, you won't notice a huge difference in the sound.

If you want to use this soundbar with your TV, you can connect it over an HDMI or Optical connection. It's compatible with LG's WOWCAST, which the manufacturer says lets you pair the bar to your TV wirelessly.

The bar supports lots of different audio formats over ARC. You can playback common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

Via Full HDMI In, the bar also supports a wide array of audio formats that are commonly found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs, like Dolby Atmos.

Over an Optical connection, the bar can play back Dolby Digital and DTS content, which is handy if you watch a lot of content on streaming platforms.

The bar's latency performance makes it well-suited to watching videos and movies. You won't notice delays between the audio you hear and the video you see. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently. If you have any issues, you can use the AV Sync feature in the app to adjust the delay.

You can stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar over many different platforms, from Bluetooth to Spotify Connect.

This bar can passthrough high-quality bandwidth signals, and there's also Dolby Vision Passthrough support. When you use it as a hub between your TV and your PC, text on the screen is clear and crisp. It can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz, though.

The front of the bar has a small display that shows various settings as you adjust them, like the volume level or the input you're on.

Touch-sensitive buttons on top of the bar let you power it on and off, change the input, adjust the volume, play/pause your audio, and connect to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The remote is a simple way to access commonly-used features like the input and the volume. Additional features like AI Room Calibration or third-party voice assistant support are available in the LG Sound Bar app.

If you have a third-party voice assistant device with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant support, you can plug it into the bar to control it with your voice.