S80QR

Overview

The S80QR is a 5.1.3 system from LG's 2022 lineup. The soundbar, a wireless subwoofer and a pair of rear speakers come in the box, together with a remote, batteries and a wall-mount bracket. LG lists a wireless receiver and rear speaker cables for the S80QR: the rear speakers plug into the receiver, which connects wirelessly to the soundbar. The black soundbar is 1000 mm wide, 63 mm high and 135 mm deep and can be wall-mounted.

Its three height channels come from up-firing speakers, one of them an up-firing center channel.

The soundbar has one HDMI input, an HDMI eARC output to the TV, an optical input, USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Over Wi-Fi it supports Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Spotify Connect, and it works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant devices. You can control it from the remote, the buttons on the bar, LG's smartphone app for iOS and Android, or the TV remote.

What the specs mean

• 5.1.3 speaker setup: five main channels, one subwoofer channel and three height channels. Two of the five main channels are the included rear speakers.
• HDMI eARC: the enhanced Audio Return Channel carries the TV's sound to the soundbar over one HDMI cable, including high-bitrate formats such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and uncompressed multichannel audio.
• Audio formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, DTS:X, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HD Master Audio and LPCM. Unlike the S95QR, S90QY and S80QY, the S80QR does not list IMAX Enhanced.
• HDMI passthrough (4K120, HDR10, Dolby Vision, VRR, ALLM, HDCP 2.3): a console or player plugs into the HDMI input and the soundbar passes the picture through to the TV. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) lets a console change the refresh rate frame by frame, and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) switches the TV to its low-latency mode automatically.
• Room correction: LG's room calibration tunes the sound to the room the soundbar is in.