LG SL9YG Review

August 10, 2019 at 1:47am
By Jason Stettner

While working on another review for LG, the OLED65C9PUA TV I was able to pair it with this special SL9YG soundbar from the company. The two worked well together since they’re from the same brand, and it enhanced the overall reviewing experience. This soundbar does deliver a number of expected modern features, and does pack some quality sound to it.

This design is to be used with TV sets of 55” and greater. That’s just due to the length, and style of this device aesthetically. If you’re not familiar with soundbars, these are used to enhance your audio experience. I personally never quite saw the point of them since the actual TVs are so loud these days, but I do have an appreciation for them now that I’ve given this set a whirl. There’s a certain nice ambience that’s provided, and a more room filling sense of atmosphere from any audio.

This is a 4.1.2 Channel 500W system, featuring Meridian Technology. It has Dolby Atmos support which really is the audio standard these days. You get a high res audio format of 24bit/96khz from it. There’s also 24 bit upscaling for the sound.

It takes advantage of a DTS:X immersive audio decoder and that creates the more natural sound space you get with it. It has support for FLAC, WAV, AAC/AAC+, MP3 and OGG. It has essentially any of the standard audio formats of today, and then some. I will mention that while it features 4k pass through, there’s no support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on this.

That could cause some issues down the line, so something to keep in mind. You do get Google Assistant support over wifi, that works well and does provide a bit of an update so be prepared for that. You can use Chromecast also, which makes sense considering the Google integration aspect of this. You can also skip that entirely and easily use the Bluetooth 4.2 option for quick music play. I enjoyed sitting there working and just listening to tunes from my iPhoneXS, it sounded great. The actual device itself comes with a wireless rear speaker. You get front speakers of 50Wx2, a top speaker of 50Wx2, Surround of 40Wx2 and a subwoofer with 220W.

I didn’t find that the subwoofer really packed much to it, despite playing around with the settings which was a bit disappointing quite honestly. You could also pair some other speakers if you want an even more immersive setup. I’ll also mention that the subwoofer is 16.8lbs with dimensions of 8.7”x15.4”x12.3”. In comparison the soundbar itself is 13.9lbs at 48.03”x2.2”x5.7” for dimensions. On the device you do get an optical port, an HDMI pass through port as mentioned previously and a USB slot for playback. These are hidden within the design very well. There are many options for tweaking the sound, this is shown through the LCD display. That has an auto-dimmer, and there’s a night mode too.

It’s easy to adjust things whether you’re using the smooth touch symbols, or the handy remote. The remote can be used physically as there’s one included, but you can also download an app to control it for IOS or Android devices. The remote is simple, and straight forward. I would have preferred a more minimalistic layout for it however considering the few buttons present.

You do feel a sense of bass with this device, but I didn’t get a whole lot of impact. It was definitely loud, it had clarity. I just didn’t feel quite the intensity that I was hoping for with this. Not to say it isn’t a quality unit, it’s great for a TV or just for audio somewhere in the house. I just wanted to feel something more intensive from the combination of the soundbar with the subwoofer. I thought the surface of the device was very appealing, slick and nice to touch. You will enjoy having this available whether it's set down or mounted to the wall. Still, it’s nice to have something so aesthetically pleasing that emits sound to enjoy.

The Conclusion

The LG SL9YG is a solid option for a soundbar, it provides an immersive sounding experience whether it’s connected to a TV or by itself. I used it for a number of games and movies, to take advantage of the lovely Atmos support while getting an idea of what it can do.

It was great to take in, and while I initially had some issues adjusting game wise it did feel better once I got used to it. I say adjusting, as I’m used to game sounds being placed specifically within my environment, so it was a change-up for it to take up a larger sense of audio space. I also used this soundbar by itself to listen to music, it was great for that. Played a number of tunes, got a full sense of what this had to offer.

This has all the features you really need, it could have been more future proofed in regards to the pass through options that were missing. It also could have packed more of a punch, still very well done with a good sense of clarity within any audio output.

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LG SL9YG Review product loaned by LG tested with LG OLED65C9PUA and Xbox One X with Games, Movies and Streamed Content. Games; Gears 5, Gears of War 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Forza Horizon 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Wolfenstein: YoungBlood, Minecraft. Movies (all 4k, some Atmos); The Dark Knight Rises, Avengers, La La Land, Thor Ragnarok, Pokemon Detective Pikachu, Mission Impossible - Fallout, Evil Dead.

Rating Overall: 7.5