LG's SC9S Soundbar Proves How Good a TV

The LG SC9S soundbar is the difference between a movie sounding alright on a TV's inbuilt speakers and a brilliant cinematic experience.

I paired the SC9S with LG's C3 TV, reviewing both in tandem, and I’ve got to say, it made a world of difference when watching movies or TV shows, and playing games.

I’ve never really been a soundbar guy up until now, so the SC9S was a bit of an eye (and ear) opener.

The LG SC9S soundbar is designed to be paired with LG's TVs, particularly those belonging to the C3 range, which I was very impressed with. For that review, I rarely switched off the SC9S soundbar.

LG reckons this soundbar is ideal for TVs between the 55-inch and 77-inch size range, any bigger and your space is probably bigger, so you’d want a more punchy sound system to accompany the experience.

That's not to say the soundbar won't work with TVs from other manufacturers, mind you; just that the best-recommended experience is with an LG TV. That way, you can directly adjust the soundbar's settings through the TV's settings menu and the two just talk to each other a little better.

The culmination of these technologies resulted in the best content-viewing experience I’ve ever had in my apartment. LG has done tremendous work creating a sound and visual experience that gels incredibly well together.

With the SC9S you get the following sound settings: AI sound pro, Standard, Cinema, Clear voice pro, Cricket, Music, Game optimiser, and Bass blast. You can also customise the levels to your own satisfaction, but going with one of the preset options is a bit safer.

My experience was best spent watching Blade Runner 2049 and Dune on the TV and soundbar, two movies that have rich, incredible images, along with terrific, blaring soundtracks that the soundbar really took advantage of. Additionally, I watched Arcane, Succession, and played both Assassin's Creed: Origins and Resident Evil 4 on the TV, and truly loved how cinematic the sound felt throughout these fairly different experiences. The LG SC9S soundbar feels well-rounded across these different content types.

Settings and volume can also be cycled through with the remote, pictured below. The remote of this soundbar, unfortunately, follows LG's unintuitive design that makes it difficult to use for people with limited dexterity and long fingernails (with its indented ring). LG really needs to drop this design.

Most of my time was spent with the soundbar set to Cinema, which caused the rich sound from the bar to shoot through my living room. Not to be corny, but it did in fact feel like a cinema. This was certainly aided by the incredible wireless subwoofer which I, unfortunately, had no defined place for – so it just sat in front of my TV.

Meanwhile, I did flick between the other settings, though I didn't really find one as general-use as Cinema, really. Standard was fine, but its levels weren't as raised and felt more muted when I could be enjoying the soaring highs of Cinema. I used Game optimiser for games, obviously, but I would keep coming back to Cinema.

In terms of connectivity, the LG SC9S soundbar has an HDMI port, USB, and optical port, which doubles as a port for LG's own ‘sound sync’ cable, which is the cable used when you have an LG TV and sound system combo. There's also a Bluetooth connection, for if you want to play music directly from a Bluetooth-capable device. When you’re cycling through these settings on the above remote, the soundbar has a voice telling you which setting it has been changed over to.

During my time I only took advantage of the LG optical cord, as that's what was connected to my TV, along with Bluetooth, which worked fairly well when paired to my phone and playing songs through Spotify. If you want to delve into the settings really deep, you can do so through LG's own soundbar app.

The LG SC9S soundbar does sit comfortably on the foot of the TV, though, with an official bracket that was configured for my setup. The lights on the device didn't seem annoying or too blinky, with the white dots on the soundbar in the below image representing the system in its ‘on’ state. these get brighter or dimmer to represent volume being turned up or down, returning to a neutral dimness after tampering with volume control.

As a final note, the LG SC9S Soundbar is also really aesthetically pleasing. Mounting this thing on a wall or having it sit on a television cabinet would not be a particular strain on the eyes.

If you’re trying to put together a complete package that includes terrific quality visuals and brilliant sound, then you’d likely be impressed by the LG SC9S soundbar and the TV it's intended to be matched with, the LG C3.

Just be aware that it doesn't come cheap. The soundbar costs $999 in Australia, while the TV starts at $2,995.

LG ($999) | JB Hi-Fi ($1,399)

Zachariah Kelly is a writer at Gizmodo Australia.