The LG S90TY is a 2024 5.1.3 soundbar with a discrete subwoofer. It's essentially a stripped-down version of the LG S90TR, foregoing the dedicated rear speakers in favor of a simplified bar and sub design. Predictably, it borrows from the spec sheet of its sibling, featuring HDMI 2.1 capabilities with 4k @ 120Hz passthrough, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as an AI Sound Pro room correction feature. There's also a host of features available for integration with LG TVs, including WOW Orchestra, which allows you to integrate your TV's speakers as an extra playback channel and WOW Cast, which opens up the possibility of wireless Dolby Atmos playback.
Our Verdict
The LG S90TY is a great choice for mixed usage. It's a versatile, space-saving setup that does an impressive job of rendering both music and movie audio accurately. The dedicated sub brings some boom to the low-end, though it can overpower the less pronounced mid-range at times. There's plenty of sparkle at the top of the frequency spectrum, which adds just the right amount of high-end detail to sibilants and voices. Its wide soundstage and detailed center channel ensure stereo content is enveloping, while preserving dialogue clarity and focus. Its lack of rear speakers (and up-firing drivers on these speakers) means it's a bit more limited when it comes to surround sound and Atmos content though. While its three up-firing drivers convey some sense of height with Atmos content, this is limited to audio objects that are directly in front of you. It's also disappointing that it doesn't seem to let you pair LG rear speakers to help compensate for this.
AI room calibration tunes the sound to your space.
Compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats.
Minimal compression at max volume.
Wireless Atmos playback with a compatible LG TV.
Surround sound content hampered by lack of rear speakers.
The LG S90TY is impressive for TV shows and fast-paced dialogue. While there's a slight dip in the lower mid-range of the frequency response, the upper-mids and treble range are very balanced, yielding detailed dialogue and speech. This is aided by the dedicated center channel, which has good focus and tracks dialogue well. There's no danger of audio being too quiet as well—this bar is capable of hitting high volumes without compressing the source material much. There's an array of features that can help bring out dialogue further, too, like 'Dynamic Range Compression' and 'Clear Voice Pro', which ensure voices stay at the forefront of the mix without being overshadowed by other sonic elements.
AI room calibration tunes the sound to your space.
Great selection of sound enhancement options.
Surround sound content hampered by lack of rear speakers.
The LG S90TY is impressive for music. The discrete sub provides plenty of low-end heft, conveying the boom and slam of 808s and big room kicks. That said, this towering, and (somewhat unsubtle) bass can overpower the mid-range at times. The treble response is detailed, though, and injects some air into the digitally-manipulated highs of electroacoustic music, for example. It can get plenty loud too, while preserving the dynamics of recorded music, and the wide soundstage helps add a spacious quality to orchestral performances. If you're not a fan of the default sound, you can always adjust it to your liking via the bass/treble adjustments and selection of EQ presets.
AI room calibration tunes the sound to your space.
Great selection of sound enhancement options.
Minimal compression at max volume.
Surround sound content hampered by lack of rear speakers.
The LG S90TY is a good choice for movies. It features a balanced frequency response, with a strong, thuddy bass, courtesy of the discrete sub. While the bass can eclipse some lower-mid frequencies in particularly frenetic chase scenes, the upper part of the mid-range is balanced and reproduces dialogue accurately. The detailed treble range is clear without sounding piercing, rendering sounds like screeching metal in a way that's not grating. The bar's stereo soundstage is wide, and it can get loud without introducing much compression, but surround sound and Atmos playback can be disappointing. This isn't too surprising considering the lack of dedicated rear speakers and the presence of up-firing drivers only in the bar itself. As a result, surround sound content can sound muted, especially in the treble range. Atmos content does contain some semblance of height, but this is limited only to audio objects directly in front of you.
AI room calibration tunes the sound to your space.
Compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats.
Great selection of sound enhancement options.
Wireless Atmos playback with a compatible LG TV.
Surround sound content hampered by lack of rear speakers.
Disappointing Atmos (height) performance.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The LG S90TY comes in one color variant: 'Black', and here's a picture of its label. If you encounter another variant of this bar, please let us know in the comments.
Popular Soundbar Comparisons
The LG S90TY is a 2024 mid-range 5.1.3 soundbar that comes with a dedicated sub. For all intents and purposes, it's a pared-down variant of the LG S90TR, which was released in the same year. The S90TY comes at a slightly lower price point, at the expense of discrete rear speakers (and the improved surround sound performance these speakers represent). This could be to your advantage if you're dead set on a bar/sub combo or don't have the space for rear speakers in your setup. Otherwise, the two bars are virtually indistinguishable from one another in terms of features and performance. While LG soundbars integrate well into an ecosystem if you own other LG products, with features like WOW Cast and WOW Orchestra that can incorporate your LG TV, there are other competitors that offer entryways to other brand ecosystems. The 2024 Samsung HW-Q800D, for example, has a similar configuration and performance at a lower price, with a better surround and Atmos performance. For owners of a compatible Samsung TV, it'll offer a similar level of integration via the brand's Q-Symphony connectivity. If you're hankering for quality surround sound, you can even opt for the slightly pricier Samsung HW-Q910D and enjoy the vast improvements in 5.1 content.
Check out our recommendations for the best soundbars, the best soundbars for movies, and the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.
The Sonos Arc Ultra and the LG S90TY are both solid options for pared-down home cinema setups. While both are functionally 5.1 setups, the Sonos is an all-in-one bar with a built-in subwoofer and two up-firing drivers, while the LG features a discrete subwoofer and three up-firing drivers. The Arc Ultra is Sonos' flagship 2024 bar, and as a result, it performs like a premium bar in many respects. Despite the lack of a discrete sub, it's capable of outputting a balanced sound, with a wide soundstage and excellent center channel focus. It has a better surround and Atmos performance than the LG. That said, the LG's discrete sub does allow it to extend lower than the Sonos, adding a dynamic quality to chase sequences and bass-heavy soundtracks. The LG also has HDMI passthrough capabilities and a broader suite of sound enhancement options.
The LG S90TR and the LG S90TY offer a surprisingly similar performance and feature set, considering one features dedicated satellites and the other is a streamlined bar/sub combo. This translates to a very obvious difference when it comes to surround sound performance, where the discrete rear speakers that come with the LG S90TR are capable of producing a much wider sound with 5.1 content. Otherwise, there's almost nothing to split the two bars. Both feature balanced frequency responses, great dynamics performances and can passthrough 4k signals @ 120Hz. If space in your living room isn't a consideration, you can see which of these is available for a lower price.
The LG S90TY and the Samsung HW-Q800D are very similar bars with some slight differences, though the Samsung will be a better choice for most people. They're both bar/sub combos, eschewing dedicated rear speakers in favor of side-firing drivers. That said, the Samsung handles surround and Atmos content far better than the LG, creating a sound field with more width and height. It's also better-built. However, the LG creates a wider sound when playing back stereo content, with good focus across the entire length of the bar. Both bars feature ways of integrating TVs and speakers from their respective product eco-systems (WOW Orchestra for LG and Q-Symphony for Samsung), which can sway your decision if you already own products from either manufacturer.
The Samsung HW-Q990D is the brand's flagship 2024 11.1.4 soundbar, while the LG S90TY is a mid-range 5.1.3 bar. As a result, the Samsung has a more extensive feature set, and the bells and whistles translate to a better overall performance. It has a more balanced default sound, as well as better performance in pretty much all of sound tests. The most notable difference arises with Atmos and surround sound content, where the Samsung excels at creating an immersive experience. While both bars support 4k @ 120Hz HDMI passthrough, the Samsung is the only one capable of doing so at 10-bit. That said, you'll want to consider the LG if space is at a premium in your living space or you already own an LG TV, which will allow you to take advantage of LG-specific features, like wireless Dolby Atmos.
Test Results
The LG S90TY bears a strong resemblance to the LG S90TR. It's finished in a lighter shade of gray but still features a perforated metal grille that flanks the soundbar on the sides and top. A metal circle on the top panel houses the center up-firing driver.
The subwoofer is identical to the one that comes with the S90TR. It's constructed from the same composite material, with a thin layer of fabric covering the driver.
This soundbar doesn't come with satellites, unlike the LG S90TR.
It's a fairly long soundbar that extends too far to fit beneath the legs of a 65-inch TV stand. However, its low profile means it won't obstruct your view of the TV.
The subwoofer is relatively compact, with a similar footprint to the average PC tower. Its wireless design opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of placement around your living space, but you'll still need to connect it to a power source.
The LG S90TY comes with two sets of brackets and two screws, to help you mount the bar to the wall.
The sub and bar are mostly made of plastic, and the bar has an aluminum grill that stretches around the sides and top. The sub is made of a composite material that feels sturdy, but it shares the same thin cloth covering over the driver as the LG S90TR, which is likely to rip over time.
- Manual with mounting template
- 2x AA batteries
- Remote
- 2x Mounting brackets
- 2x Mounting screws
- 4x Power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
- HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
The LG S90TY has a balanced frequency response that's functionally identical to the LG S90TR. We tested using the AI Sound Calibration feature, which adapts the sound to the unique acoustics of your room. There's plenty of boom and punch in the low-end, aided by the dedicated subwoofer, which can add some bass-range heft to electronic music and horn-heavy orchestral soundtracks. That said, there's some chuffing from the sub when it's pushed to its limits, and it can spill over into the mid-range with certain content. There's plenty of high-end sparkle in the treble range, though, which adds a nice sheen to stringed instruments and dialogue.
There are a few presets you can cycle through to change up the EQ, but 'Music' and 'Standard' are the only ones that don't virtualize content to the side-firing drivers. We found that 'Music' had a slightly more excited sound than 'Standard'.
To get the most balanced sound, you can set the bass to '-3' and the treble to '+3', which helps mitigate the sometimes boomy and overbearing nature of the sub.
The stereo soundstage performance is good. The LG S90TY is a long bar, and the soundstage extends slightly beyond its peripheries, for a wide sound. That said, we did notice two gaps on either side of the bar when audio objects shift from the far side to the center of the soundstage, which can impact localization and focus.
The dynamics performance is impressive. This bar can get quite loud, certainly enough to fill even a home theater with sound. Even if you crank the volume to its limits, you'll notice very few compression artifacts, with the dynamics of the source material well preserved.
The LG S90TY has a good center performance. The discrete center channel's response is slightly tilted, favoring treble frequencies, which can be useful to the localization and focus of dialogue. That said, this can also veer into harshness when trebly audio cues are played back through the center channel. If you own a compatible LG TV, you can also pair the built-in speakers with the soundbar via WOW Orchestra to bolster the center channel. However, your experience with this will vary quite a bit depending on your TV and your choice of EQ preset.
The surround performance is disappointing, which is unsurprising considering this model lacks the dedicated rear speakers that come with the LG S90TR. It instead uses side-firing drivers contained within the bar itself to add width to surround sound content. There's quite a bit of distortion present at both 80dB/SPL, as well as at max volume, though this is more audible in sweeps than with everyday content. The drivers also struggle to playback treble range frequencies, which can cause surround sound content to sound dull and closed-off.
The LG S90TY struggles with creating a perception of height with Atmos content. There are three up-firing Atmos drivers housed at the top of the bar that are tasked with creating a vertical plane by bouncing sound off the ceiling. While they are able to create some sense of verticality, the lack of dedicated rear speakers (with up-firing drivers) means that any sense of height is limited to directly in front of you. We did find that there was a surprising amount of clarity in voice and dialogue reproduction, as well as a decent amount of width produced with Atmos content.
There's an array of sound enhancement features to choose from that can help you shape the sound to the content you're watching or listening to. AI room calibration can help you tailor the frequency response to your room acoustics, and there are controls to adjust bass, treble, sub, and surround levels. Oddly, there's also an option within the app to adjust the rear speaker levels, despite there being no rear speakers. We even attempted to pair the satellite speakers that came with the LG S90TR, only to find they couldn't be paired.
As with other LG soundbars, you can toggle through settings like 'Dynamic Range Compression', 'Night Mode', and 'Auto Volume'. These modes use a mixture of compression, lookahead limiting, and bass attenuation to adapt the audio to different use cases. There are also a few EQ modes to explore, including 'AI Sound Pro', 'Standard', 'Cinema', 'Clear Voice Pro', 'Sports', 'Music', 'Game', and 'Bass Blast'.
It's worth noting that all of these modes will use DSP to up-mix the channels, except 'Standard' and 'Music'. Finally, you can also pair a compatible LG TV with the bar using WOW Orchestra and use the TV speakers to fill in the center channel. However, performance will vary quite a bit depending on your TV, and there's often latency between the various channels that can muddy the sound somewhat.
This bar has a combination of HDMI and optical inputs, with support for HDMI 2.1. There's a full HDMI In port, as well as the capability to pair wirelessly with compatible LG TVs using the WOWCast feature through the WOWInterface and play back DTS or Dolby Atmos content wirelessly. This also lets you control the soundbar using the remote or interface on your TV, rather than using the included soundbar remote or app. While LG advertises low latency performance via WOWCast, we're unable to test the latency, and this connection type has historically yielded mixed results. There's also a USB input that can be used to service the bar or play back lossless files.
The LG S90TY supports all major audio format via eARC, including the ubiquitous Dolby Digital and DTS, as well as lossless and object-based formats, like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. While some promotional material for this soundbar included IMAX Enhanced among the list of supported formats, it's not included on the list of compatible products on the official website, nor as a compatible format on the LG website.
As with eARC, this soundbar has stellar format support via the HDMI In port. It's compatible with popular formats, like Dolby Digital and DTS, as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Using an optical connection this bar can play back Dolby Digital and DTS content, along with 2-channel PCM playback.
Audio latency via ARC is amazing. You're unlikely to encounter any lip-sync issues, but you can always use the AV Sync feature to adjust for this manually. That said, different apps and devices adjust for latency differently, so your experience may vary.
Audio latency via the HDMI In connection is excellent as well. You likely won't encounter any lip-sync issues, but you can always use the AV Sync feature to adjust for this manually. Different apps and devices adjust for latency differently, so your experience may vary.
Audio latency with an optical connection is impressive. You can always negate any AV synchronization issues using the AV Sync feature.
This soundbar has impressive passthrough capabilities, which is good news if you're planning on using the bar as a hub between a display and a console/PC. There's support for passing through 4k signals at 120Hz 8-bit 4:2:0, along with compatibility for VRR technologies, like G-SYNC.
The LG S90TY is kitted out with a full suite of wireless playback options. You can connect and play back audio via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as Chromecast, Apple AirPlay, and Spotify Connect.
This soundbar can display information like the volume, input source, and power status via three LED dots that are positioned towards the center-right of the soundbar. There's voice feedback when you change certain parameters. That said, it's best not to leave the soundbar volume too high, as it can very easily blast you with unsafe sound levels.
As with the LG S90TR, there's a small panel of touch-sensitive buttons positioned on the top of the soundbar, next to the up-firing drivers. You can use these to turn the bar on/off, adjust the source input, adjust the volume, activate Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi pairing. However, most users will find it easier to use the LG soundbar app or remote to adjust these parameters.
The remote is the same one that comes with many different LG soundbar models and gives you control over basic parameters, like volume and input source. To access more advanced functions, like AI Room Correction and AV Sync, you'll need to delve into the app, which we run through in this brief video.
This bar features support for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, though you'll need to setup the ThinQ app to get either to work. You can also use the Google Home or Alexa app to set up voice detection, but you'll need to adjust these within their respective apps. There's no ability to mute the microphone though, which could be a concern to you from a privacy standpoint.