LG SL10YG Soundbar Review

The LG SL10YG is the highest-end model of the 2019 soundbar line up from LG. Similar to the 2018 SK10Y, the SL10Y is a 5.1.2 channel bar with up-firing speakers and a sub although this model also supports DTS:X. The SL line up is slightly different from the 2018 SK line up since all three are high-end models; the SL10Y, SL9Y (4.1.2 channels) and the SL8Y (3.1.2 channels) come with the Meridian Technology feature built-in, unlike the 2018 models. The SL10Y's main competitors are the Bose Soundbar 700 and the Samsung HW-Q90R.

This is a very wide bar. It has a metal grill that covers its front face and the sides, while the rest is made of solid plastic. It has two round metal grills at the top that cover the up-firing speakers.

The sub is made of solid plastic and metal. It has a fabric that covers the front and the sides, which can collect dust and can get ripped easily. The port is found on the back.

We tested our setup without satellites. You can buy compatible satellites like these if you wish.

The LG SL10YG is one of the widest bars we've tested. Not only will it not fit between the legs of a 55" TV, but most likely you'll need a larger table to place it on unless you choose to wall-mount it. On the upside, if you place it in front of your TV, it won't block the view of your screen as it isn't very tall.

The sub is about the size of an average desktop PC. It pairs wirelessly to the bar, so you can place it anywhere in the room since all it needs is power.

There are no satellites in our setup.

The back of the bar is made of solid plastic and has one opening for all the inputs. The power cord is permanently attached to the bar on the other side.

The back of the soundbar is plain and the port is on the bottom end. The power cable connects above the port and might stick out a little.

Our setup has no satellites.

The build quality of the soundbar is great. The solid plastic and the metal at the front and sides of the bar, along with its sheer size, make it feel premium. The biggest quality concern is the fabric that surrounds the sub that can get easily ripped or can collect dust.

• Manual
• Optical cable
• Remote and batteries
• Power cable
• Tie-wraps
• Wall mounting brackets

The LG SL10YG has a good stereo frequency response score, which is largely due to its great low-frequency extension and high-frequency extension. This results in most sounds being played by the bar, including the deep punch and rumble of bass, which is great for movies. However, the sound isn’t necessarily neutral, as it has quite a lot of error compared to our flat target. As the graph shows, the bass and treble are overemphasized by quite a bit. This will give an excited, or V-shaped, sound profile, which some may prefer.

When listening to the LG SL10YG, the soundstage is just okay, which is slightly disappointing. Although the bar is very large, the stereo speakers are positioned way in from the sides of the bar, which makes the soundstage narrower than the bar itself. Additionally, the focus of the soundstage is slightly diffused since the sound profile of the soundbar is muddy, making it a bit harder to pinpoint objects in the soundstage.

This soundbar can get pretty loud and so is suitable for a large room or crowded environments. However, due to the very large size of the bar, its max volume level is slightly disappointing. On the upside, it also performs quite well at max volume as you don’t get much compression.

The SL10YG’s THD performance at a normal listening volume is within good limits and it will reproduce a clean and pure sound. However, when pushing the bar to its max volume, there's a big jump in THD, especially in the treble range. This might not be as audible with real-life content.

The LG SL10YG soundbar setup has a great center channel performance on surround content. Due to its 5.1.2 configuration, it has a dedicated center speaker, which results in a clearer and more accurate audio reproduction of the dialogue in movies. However, the general sound profile is still a bit bass-heavy, but there isn't much bass on center channels to begin with, so this shouldn't matter too much.

The surround performance is sub-par. The bar has side-firing speakers, which reflect sound off the walls to give you the impression of a wider surround sound. However, this also means this setup won't provide the most accurate and clear representation of surround objects in the soundstage, and it won't feel as real as a discrete surround like with home theatre speakers. It also results in a very dark sound profile and the error compared to our neutral target curve is quite significant.

The LG SL10YG supports Atmos, but its performance is poor. The bar has up-firing speakers that bounce the sounds off the ceiling, giving you the impression of height. However, the localization of objects is diffused and doesn't sound as real as a discrete localization provided by down-firing speakers. Also, the sound profile changes drastically and becomes fairly bright with a lower amount of bass, but practically no detail in the treble too.

The LG SL10YG lacks some of the most important sound enhancement features such as dialogue enhancement and room correction. Without room correction, this soundbar may sound a bit differently depending on your room. On the upside, it does offer a lot of control and customization options to manually make it sound the way you like.

The LG SL10YG can serve as a hub between your device and your TV. Unfortunately, it lacks an Analog Audio In to connect to older devices that lack modern connectivity features, but on the upside, you can play music stored on a USB key.

The LG SL10YG supports the common Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound formats found on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs. It can also deliver a more immersive experience through the support of object-based surround sound format like Dolby Atmos. Unfortunately, the lack of eARC support doesn't allow the bar to playback uncompressed sound like 5.1 PCM, over this port.

Excellent support for surround sound and object-based sound formats on the LG SL10YG, provided you send the signal through the Full HDMI In port. The soundbar offers immersive experience when watching content, like from Netflix or Blu-rays, encoded in these superior sound formats.

The Optical Audio connection can decode Dolby Digital surround sound content that is available on streaming platforms like Netflix and Blu-rays. The supported DTS content is usually not available on its own but serves as a fallback to the very common DTS-HD MA that is often found on Blu-ray discs.

This soundbar offers the common Bluetooth connection, making it easy to connect to mobile devices. You can also use Wi-Fi or cast using Chromecast built-in to play your content, but unfortunately, Apple AirPlay is not supported.

When used as a hub, the SL10YG can pass through the highest quality signals. If you connect it between your PC and your TV, the text on the screen will be clear.

The sub connects wirelessly, so all you have is the power cable.

Our setup has no satellites.

The interface consists of a small screen behind the front grill. It displays which input is in use, the volume level, and the sound effect selected.

The touch-sensitive buttons on the top of the bar are pretty straightforward. You can select the input, control the volume, turn the system on or off, and control the play pause functionality. Since this bar supports the Google Assistant, you have a button to activate it and a button to mute the microphone if you wish.

The remote is fairly small and can easily fit in your palm. You can control most of the functions on the bar using the remote, and there's a button to loop through the preset sound effects/modes.

LG Wi-Fi Speaker is a versatile app that can do a few things that can't be done by the remote, like making playlists. On the other hand, there are things that the app can't do but the remote can, like set auto volume.

This bar, just like most soundbars can enter standby mode after some time of inactivity. Thanks to HDMI ARC, you can use the TV remote to perform certain functions on the bar.