LG Eclair QP5 Soundbar Review

The LG Eclair QP5 is a small and compact soundbar with a similar shape to the pastry that shares its name. There's a metal grille on the top, and the rounded edges of the bar are covered in a tight fabric. The bottom of the bar is made of plastic. You can also find a white color variant called the LG Eclair QP5W.

The subwoofer is mostly made of hard plastic. The rounded sides of the sub are covered in a tight fabric. Its reversible design gives you a lot of flexibility when placing it in your room since you can use it in any direction.

The LG Eclair QP5 is very small. It can easily fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand, and it's not very tall, so it shouldn't block your TV screen. It's ideal for listeners in condos and apartments who don't have enough space for a full setup.

The sub is roughly the size of an average desktop computer. Since it connects to the bar wirelessly, you can place it wherever you want in your room.

The LG QP5 has a good build quality. The bar has a metal grille on top to protect its up-firing drivers inside, and there's fabric around its sides. While the fabric is tight and doesn't seem like it could be pinched easily, it can collect dust and debris like pet hair. The subwoofer has a similar design, and while its plastic build feels pretty solid and durable, its fabric sides also seem like they could get dirty easily.

• Manual
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• AC adapter (3.7 ft / 1.1m)
• 2x power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)

The LG Eclair QP5 has a mediocre stereo frequency response. Out-of-the-box, it has a slightly dark and veiled sound due to the recessed treble range. Also, it struggles to reproduce the deep thump found in the low-bass, so you don't feel the rumble in bass-heavy music or action-packed movies. While voices are sometimes pretty clear in the mix thanks to the balanced mid-range, they can also sound a bit muffled at times due to the dip in the low-mid range.

The LG Eclair QP5 comes with some bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound profile to your liking. However, if you prefer a more neutral sound profile, we recommend using its default bass and treble settings. We tested the bar in several different configurations, but we couldn't get a more neutral response.

The LG Eclair QP5 has a decent stereo soundstage. Despite its small size, its soundstage is perceived to be pretty wide. Its Sound Field Expander technology extends audio well past the edges of the bar itself. Unfortunately, its focus isn't as accurate, and you can hear some holes in the soundstage. As a result, sound objects like voices don't seem to come from an accurate, pinpoint location. Instead, it seems like they come from a more general area.

The LG QP5 has a satisfactory stereo dynamics performance. Like many small soundbars we've tested, it struggles to get loud enough to fill up a large room or a crowded party. That said, there isn't a lot of compression when you push it to max volume, so audio reproduction remains clear at louder volumes.

The LG Eclair QP5 has an okay stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, distortion remains within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. However, there's a large jump in distortion across the entire range when you push the bar to max volume. Listeners who care a lot about sound fidelity may notice some distortion, but more casual listeners may not hear it.

The LG Eclair QP5 has an adequate center channel performance. This 3.1.2 setup has a discrete center channel, so voices are anchored to a pinpoint location in the soundstage. Its frequency response is a bit dark, and while voices are reproduced pretty clearly, you may also notice that they sound a bit veiled. There isn't a lot of bass reproduced on the center channel in most cases, so you shouldn't notice the lack of low-bass.

The LG Eclair QP5 has a poor surrounds performance. This 3.1.2 setup has to downmix surround content into stereo in order to play it. Unfortunately, as a result, sound objects like voices don't sound as clear or as real in the soundstage. Audio doesn't seem like it's coming from speakers placed all around you. Instead, it just seems like it's coming from in front of you.

The LG Eclair QP5 has a disappointing Atmos performance. It uses two up-firing drivers built into the bar to ricochet sound off the ceiling, creating the illusion of height. However, its frequency response is quite uneven, and audio seems muffled and veiled at times due to the dips and peaks in the mid and treble ranges. It also struggles to reproduce low-bass, so action-packed scenes are noticeably lacking in boom and rumble.

The LG QP5 has a decent selection of sound enhancement features. There are some EQ presets available, including 'AI Sound Pro', 'Cinema', 'Game', and 'Music', as well as bass and treble adjustments so you can customize its sound to your liking. The 'Cinema' preset doubles as a virtual surround mode, though in our subjective listening tests, we found that it sounded a bit fake. There's also a Dialogue Control feature in the Sound Settings tab of the app. However, it's only available with DTS content.

Thanks to its 2021 LG AI TV Processor, the manufacturer says you can also pair the bar with a compatible LG TV to use TV Sound Mode Share. This feature lets you use the TV's speakers with your soundbar to create a more immersive listening experience.

The LG Eclair QP5 comes with some physical inputs. You can connect it to your TV via Optical as well as HDMI ARC, and there's a Full HDMI In port that lets you use it as a hub between different devices.

The LG Eclair QP5 has fantastic audio format support via ARC. It supports the most common surround sound format, Dolby Digital. Also, there's support for lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The LG Eclair QP5 has incredible audio format support via Full HDMI In. You can commonly find Dolby Digital content on Blu-rays and streaming platforms, and there's also DTS support. You can even stream lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

There's also Dolby Digital and DTS support via Optical, and you can often find these audio formats on streaming platforms and Blu-ray discs.

The LG Eclair QP5 has a fair latency performance. It has low latency via Full HDMI In. However, it doesn't perform as well when connected via ARC and Optical, so you may notice a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see. That said, some apps and TVs can compensate for latency differently, so your experience can vary.

The LG Eclair QP5 can passthrough high-quality bandwidth signals. There's also support for Dolby Vision Passthrough.

Unlike the LG SP8YA, the LG Eclair QP5 only supports Bluetooth connectivity. You can wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar over this connection.

There are three lights on the right side of the bar that flash different colors based on the settings you adjust. For example, they turn orange when you change the volume, and the middle light flashes red when you change the EQ preset. Also, the lights are white when connected via HDMI In, HDMI ARC, and Optical, and they turn blue when you connect via Bluetooth. There are also some audio cues when you change the inputs, which is handy.

Some controls let you power the bar on/off, change the input, adjust the volume, and activate Bluetooth. Unfortunately, they're located on the back of the bar, which can be inconvenient. You have to move the bar to access them, and it's easy to accidentally trigger one of the controls while you move the bar.

The remote has the same design as that of the LG SP8YA. It lets you control the bar's basic functions, which can be more convenient than trying to use the controls on the back of the bar. You can also adjust the bar using the LG Sound Bar app on your smartphone.