LG S80QY Soundbar Review

The LG S80QY has a very similar design to other 2022 LG bars like the LG S90QY and the LG S95QR. It's mostly plastic, and fabric covers the front and the sides. On top of the bar, three metal grilles cover each of the up-firing drivers.

It's the same sub that comes with the LG S90QY and the LG S95QR. It's mostly made of wood-like material, though the back is made of plastic. Also, there's fabric covering the speaker on the side.

The LG S80QY doesn't come with satellites, but you can add on the SPQ8-S rear speaker kit if you want.

The LG S80QY is fairly wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. That said, it's not very tall, so it doesn't block your TV screen.

The LG S80QY's sub is about the same size as a desktop computer. Thanks to its wireless design, you can put it anywhere in your living room. You just need to wire it to a power source.

The LG S80QY has great build quality. The bar is mostly made of plastic, which feels solid and durable, and the metal grilles on top help to protect the drivers inside. The fabric in front is tight, and it doesn't feel like it could rip easily. Also, the sub's wood-like build feels solid. However, the fabric covering the side is loose compared to the fabric on the bar, and it could rip easily.

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

The LG S80QY has a very good stereo frequency response. Like most premium setups, there's a room correction feature on hand to adjust the bar's sound based on your room's unique acoustics⁠—it's called AI Room Calibration. With it on, the bar performs very similarly to the LG S90QY, with a fairly balanced and even sound overall, especially in the mids, where most voices and lead instruments reproduce. There's some extra boom in the bass, which helps you feel the rumble in bass-heavy genres like EDM. The dip in the low-treble pushes some instruments towards the back of the mix, like cymbals, especially compared with the LG SC9S.

With its bass set to '-2' and its treble set to '3', the LG S80QY has a more neutral sound profile. Overall, it sounds balanced and pleasant, and vocals and lead instruments are clear and detailed in the mix thanks to the balanced mid and treble ranges. The bass is present, but it isn't overwhelming. There's still a slight dip in the low-treble, though, so higher-pitched vocals and lead instruments are nudged towards the back of the mix.

The LG S80QY has a decent stereo soundstage. The soundstage seems a bit wider than the bar itself, but it doesn't have any tricks to make it seem wider than that. Compared to the LG S90QY, the focus is just decent. Sound objects, like instruments in an orchestra, seem like they're coming from more general areas as opposed to an accurate, pinpoint location in the soundstage.

The LG S80QY has great stereo dynamics. It gets fairly loud, meaning it can fill up an average living room with sound. It doesn't get as loud as other bars on the market, though, so it's not ideal for listening in large, open spaces. That said, when you push it to max volume, there's not a lot of compression present. Audio is accurately reproduced as a result.

The LG S80QY has a fair stereo THD performance. At normal listening volumes, distortion falls within good limits, so audio is accurately reproduced. There's a jump in distortion when you push the bar to max volume, though, especially in the bass and mid ranges. That said, distortion is hard to hear with real-life content⁠—it's most important for audiophiles who want the most accurate reproduction possible, but more casual listeners won't hear much of a difference in the sound.

The LG S80QY has a unique design, with both a traditional front-firing center channel as well as an additional up-firing center channel on top of the bar. Overall, its center performance is great⁠—dialogue is clearly and accurately reproduced, and it's localized to pinpoint locations in the soundstage thanks to its discrete setup. 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 LG S80QY has a poor surrounds performance, which is typical for 3.1 setups. It doesn't have discrete surround channels, so it has to downmix surround files like Dolby Digital and DTS into stereo to play them. As a result, audio doesn't seem as immersive⁠—sound doesn't come from all around you, but instead, it seems like it's just playing from speakers placed in front of you. Fortunately, you can always add on satellites as the LG S80QR if you want to improve its performance down the line. There's also the LG S95QR, which comes with rear speakers included.

The LG S80QY comes with two up-firing drivers built into the bar itself, which ricochet sound off the ceiling to create the illusion of height. Naturally, it doesn't perform as well as home theater setups with dedicated down-firing speakers⁠—but it still does a fair job. The subwoofer provides good rumble in the bass range, so action-packed scenes feel intense and exciting. Dialogue is fairly clear, though the uneven mids mean that they can be alternately distant and muddy.

Another component of the listening experience with height content is the soundstage. While this isn't reflected in the score, subjectively, the bar seems to do a decent job creating an immersive listening experience. Most of the action seems centered in front of you, and the bar doesn't really give the sense that sound objects come from the sides or behind you⁠—but that's pretty typical for a bar without rear satellites. If you want a bar with a better Atmos performance, check out the LG S95QR, or the LG S80QR.

The LG S80QY has lots of sound enhancements to choose from, especially compared to budget-friendly models in LG's lineup like the LG S75Q. There's a room correction feature, which automatically optimizes audio based on your room's unique acoustics⁠—it's called AI Room Calibration, and you can turn it on using the app. Also, you can customize the bar's sound with its bass and treble adjustments as well as its EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Bass Blast', 'AI Sound Pro', 'Cinema', 'Sports', 'Game', 'Clear Voice', and 'Music'. The 'Cinema' preset doubles as a virtual surround mode that creates a more three-dimensional sound, and the 'Clear Voice' preset enhances dialogue. Both the app and the remote let you adjust the height levels, and if you add on rear speakers, you can also adjust their levels.

Most soundbar manufacturers have tools that let you pair the bar with a TV from the same brand for an enhanced listening experience. For LG, this feature is called TV Sound Mode Share. If you want to use it, check your TV's Sound Menu to make sure you're in 'Enjoy Soundbar Sound Mode' instead of 'Enjoy TV Sound Mode' to get the feature to work⁠—otherwise, it might downmix higher-quality formats like Dolby Atmos into PCM content. 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 real difference in the sound, either.

You can connect the LG S80QY to your TV using an HDMI or an Optical connection. The manufacturer says it's also compatible with WOWCAST, which is a tool that lets you pair the bar to your TV wirelessly to reduce the amount of cables in your setup. It's not available everywhere at the time of publication, but you really only need one cable to connect the bar to your TV anyway.

The LG S80QY has fantastic audio format support over ARC. It can playback common surround sound formats like Dolby Digital as well as lossless and object-based formats like Dolby Atmos.

The LG S80QY also has incredible audio format support over Full HDMI In. If you watch a lot of content on streaming platforms and Blu-rays, the bar supports the formats that you're most likely to come across, like Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos.

The LG S80QY supports both Dolby Digital and DTS over Optical. Dolby Digital is the most common surround sound format.

The LG S80QY has a great latency performance. It has relatively low latency, so the audio you hear is in sync with the video you see on the screen. Even if you watch dialogue-heavy content like TV shows, you don't see issues with lip-synching. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience can vary. However, if you come across any issues, the AV Sync feature in the app helps to reduce latency.

The LG S80QY can passthrough high-quality bandwidths signals, and there's also Dolby Vision Passthrough support. When you use it as a hub between your TV and your PC, for example, text on the screen is clear and crisp. It can't passthrough 4k @ 120Hz, though.

The LG S80QY supports many different wireless playback options, including Spotify Connect. You can wirelessly stream audio from your phone or your tablet right to the bar.

There's a small display on the front of the bar. If you change a setting, like the volume level or the sound preset, it shows on the screen.

There are a couple of touch-sensitive controls on top of the bar. You can use them to power it on/off, change the input, adjust the volume, play/pause your audio, and activate Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi. You can also change these settings from the app or using the remote.

The LG S80QY's remote is fairly simple and lets you control the bar's basic features like the input and the volume. You'll need the LG Sound Bar app to access a few other features, like room correction.

There's no built-in voice assistant support with the LG S80QY. However, you can pair the bar with a third-party Amazon Alexa or a Google Assistant device, like an Amazon Echo or a Google Home speaker. It lets you control the bar with your voice.