LG S90TR  Soundbar Review

The LG S90TR is very similar to the LG S95TR. It's made of black plastic and covered with a matching black aluminum grille. A round metal grille protects the center channel on the top, and touch-sensitive buttons are beside it.

The subwoofer is identical to the one that comes with the LG S95TR. It's made of sturdy plastic and has a fabric lining that covers the speaker.

The satellites are more square in shape than the ones that come with the LG S95TR, with angled, convex metal grilles that protrude from the front. They're also made entirely of plastic but don't feel as premium as the rest of the setup. Sadly, like the LG S80TR, they don't contain any up-firing drivers for Atmos content. If you lack the space for dedicated rear speakers, you can always consider the LG S90TY, which is, by and large, the same bar without rear speakers.

This bar is reasonably wide and won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. Thankfully, its low profile won't block your TV screen.

The sub has dimensions similar to those of an average desktop PC. Its wireless design means you can place it wherever you like; it only needs to be plugged into an outlet for power.

The compact satellite speakers can be tucked away in corners or placed discretely around your listening room. They also connect wirelessly to the bar, so you only need to worry about the power cable.

You can mount both the bar and the satellites to the wall. However, only mountable brackets for the bar are provided, so those looking to mount the satellites will need to improvise.

The LG S90TR has a great build quality. Once again, it's very similar to the LG S95TR. The bar is primarily constructed of tough plastic, with an aluminum grille that covers the front-facing drivers. There's a similar circular grille covering the upfiring driver, too. The satellite speakers are constructed from a similar blend of plastic and aluminum. The sub is made of a solid melamine-like material, with fabric covering the sides. While this fabric is tautly wrapped, it also feels susceptible to tearing.

• Manual with mounting template
• Remote with 2x AA batteries
• 2x Mounting brackets with 2x screws
• 4x Power cables (4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5 m)

The LG S90TR has a very good stereo frequency response. Before testing, we ran the AI Sound Calibration feature, which tunes the frequency response according to your room's acoustic characteristics. The resulting sound is balanced and very similar to that of the LG S95TR. The subwoofer brings plenty of thump and rumble to the low-end that injects excitement into action sequences and kicks and basslines in music. This can sometimes sound a little boomy and overshadow the comparatively underemphasized low-mids, where instruments like snares and bass guitars can lie. The rest of the mid-range and the treble-range are detailed and present, so vocals and dialogue come through clearly.

There are a couple of EQ presets you can cycle through depending on the content you're playing, too. However, the 'Standard' and 'Music' modes were the only presets capable of faithfully playing back stereo content without the use of artificial surround sound. We also subjectively found the other presets to sound less balanced, with hollower mids, overly boomy low-end, and a sharper treble response. You can see a comparison of the different presets here.

You can set this bar's bass to '-2' and the treble to '3' for a more balanced sound. This helps mitigate some of the boominess in the low end and adds a pleasant airiness to the treble range.

The LG S90TR has a good stereo soundstage performance. The soundstage seemed to extend slightly beyond the width of the bar itself, with good focus and localization of objects within the stereo field.

The dynamics performance is great. It can get pretty loud, easily enough to fill the average living room with sound. Even at max volume, compression is minimal, so audio will remain pure and clear even if you crank the volume up.

The LG S90TR has a good center performance. The bar has a discrete center channel that helps with the localization of voices and dialogue. The frequency response somewhat exaggerates the highs and the upper end of the mid-range, which adds clarity and detail to speech and dialogue. However, this can cause higher-pitched audio effects to sound sharp and overly bright. You can also pair the speakers of a compatible LG TV using WOW Orchestra, which can help fill in the center channel. Subjectively, we found some latency between the TV speakers and the bar that somewhat muddied the response. Your experience will differ depending on your TV and the EQ preset you use.

This bar has a good surround performance, aided by its discrete satellite speakers that can more accurately convey width than a phantom setup. As a result, the sound of cars racing matches the visual representation well. That said, a little roll-off in the top end can darken some of these sounds.

The height performance when playing back Atmos content is poor. While the bar has upfiring drivers that can bounce sound off the ceiling and create the illusion of height, these are missing from the satellite speakers. Sadly, this detracts from the immersive nature of the sound field and can lead to issues tracking motion, resulting in Atmos content sounding hollow and lacking in depth. While a sense of height can be conveyed if sound is contained in the center of the soundbar, it's abruptly lost when the direction shifts towards the satellites. While we tested the performance with the default setting, it's possible to adjust the height level in the app.

This bar comes with a wide variety of sound enhancement features to suit most needs. You can use the AI Room Calibration feature to tune the bar to the unique acoustic characteristics of your space, as well as adjust the surround, height, sub, and rear levels. There are a couple of features for listening convenience too, like 'Dynamic Range Compression' (which compresses audio to reduce spikes in volume), 'Night Mode' (which lowers the bass), and 'Auto Volume (which adjusts the volume based on the signal of the input.

There are quite a few presets you can cycle through including 'AI Sound Pro,' 'Standard,' 'Cinema,' 'Clear Voice Pro,' 'Sports,' 'Music,' 'Game,' and 'Bass Blast.' Additionally, this bar supports LG's WOW Orchestra feature, which pairs with the speakers on a compatible LG TV to create a more immersive sound. We carried out some subjective listening using this feature and found that it paired well with the sound presets, except the 'Standard' and 'Music' modes. Using the 'AI Sound Pro' preset, we found that it did a good job filling in the center channel and expanding the width of Atmos content. We did, however, notice some latency issues between the TV's speakers and the soundbar using this feature. This delay muddied the sound somewhat and detracted from the surround experience.

This bar supports a few different types of inputs, including HDMI and optical, though there's no support for HDMI 2.1. If you have a newer LG TV, you can also wirelessly sync it to the bar using the WOW Cast feature via the WOW interface. That said, even after performing a factory reset on both devices, we couldn't use this feature with an LG C4 OLED. However, you can possibly resolve this issue by updating the firmware on both devices.

It's worth noting that, paired the bar with a TV, we did notice some latency issues between the TV speakers and soundbar using this feature, which muddied the sound somewhat. Your experience with a different TV could vary, though.

The LG S90TR has incredible audio format support via eARC. It supports major surround sound formats, including Dolby Digital and DTS, which streaming platforms and Blu-rays use. It also supports lossless and object-based formats, like DTS:X and Dolby Atmos.

This bar has outstanding audio format support for HDMI In. It can playback popular audio formats like Dolby Digital and DTS and lossless, object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

This bar has fantastic support for optical connections and can playback both Dolby Digital and DTS content if you have an older TV with an Optical port.

Audio latency via ARC is excellent. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently. However, if you encounter any lag between your audio and visuals, you can use the AV Sync feature to adjust for it manually.

The audio latency performance over HDMI In is excellent, too. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently. However, if you encounter any lag between your audio and visuals, you can use the AV Sync feature to adjust for it manually.

Audio latency via an Optical connection is great. If you encounter any issues with lag between your audio and visuals, you can always switch to an HDMI connection or use the AV Sync feature to compensate for any delay manually.

The LG S90TR can passthrough high-quality bandwidth signals, and you can use it as a hub between devices like a console or PC and your TV. It can passthrough 4k signals at 120Hz 8-bit 4:2:0 and is compatible with a host of variable refresh rate technologies, like FreeSync, G-SYNC, and HDMI Forum, to ensure a tear-free gaming experience.

The LG S90TR has incredible wireless playback support. It can connect and receive audio via Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, Chromecast, and Spotify Connect.

This soundbar features a small display just to the right of the center of the bar that can indicate the input source, power level, and volume. While you can't see the actual volume level, the lights shift from green through yellow to red, depending on the volume. There's also voice feedback for settings and presets, but there's a delay after you change a parameter. The volume of the feedback also varies depending on the soundbar's volume, so it's often too loud or quiet.

This bar has a few touch-sensitive buttons on the top, just above the up-firing driver. You can use these buttons to turn the bar on/off, adjust the source, change the volume, and activate Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi pairing. You can also use the LG Soundbar app to change these parameters and more. You can see it in action here.

The remote is very similar to what comes with most LG soundbars and lets you adjust some rudimentary controls like volume and input switching. You'll need to use the app for more advanced features like AI Room calibration and AV Sync.

While the LG S90TR has no built-in voice assistant support, you can always connect it to a third-party device, like an Amazon Echo or Google Home speaker, to control the bar with your voice.