The principle seems quite simple. LG promises you can set its Sound suite speakers anywhere and Dolby’s home theater technology will make them perform. The soundbar, subwoofer and speakers don’t need to be placed in prescribed locations to get the best results, meaning you can place them where you need them and move them around as you see fit. Of course, this all depends on the reliability of the underlying technology and LG’s ability to make individual speakers that sound really good.
Like most high-end sound bars and complete home theater setups these days, a complete Sound Suite collection it’s expensive. The centerpiece alone, a soundbar that most people will want in their customizable configuration, costs $1,000. However, if you own a newer LG TV or are planning to buy a 2026 model when those arrive, there’s no better option to improve your living room entertainment experience.
The components of LG Sound Suite
There are four different devices that make up Sound Suite. The centerpiece is the H7 soundbar ($1,000)which is the first to work with Dolby Atmos FlexConnect (DAFC) technology. And then there is the 8 inch W7 subwoofer ($600) And the M5 And M7 speakers ($250 and $400). LG lets you choose between these products to create a home theater setup tailored to your needs: up to four speakers and a subwoofer. The only real downside is that you need the H7 soundbar or a recent LG TV (2025 OLED G5, C5, CS5, and QNED 9M, or an upcoming 2026 model) to serve as the primary device for Sound Suite to work. That’s because the underlying technology requires LG’s AI alpha 11 Gen 3 processor, which is found inside the company’s newest soundbar and TVs.
The H7 houses a dozen Peerless speakers including front-firing, side-firing, and vertical-firing units. There are also four woofers and eight passive radiators for bass and low frequencies. The soundbar has a fairly basic design, simple enough to sit in front of an LG OLED (or other high-end TV) without being a distraction, and short enough to not block it. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are available here, so AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect are all supported.
The W7 wireless subwoofer has an 8-inch woofer that gets very loud at times. It’s quite large at 16.1 x 16.3 x 7.6 inches, but you can use it standing vertically or lying horizontally, whatever orientation suits your needs or available space. The M5 and M7 speakers offer basically the same features, including AirPlay and Cast, and can be used alone, as a stereo pair, as a four-speaker array, or as rear satellite speakers with the H7 soundbar. The main difference is that the M7 has two full-range speakers, an up-firing driver and a woofer, while the M5 only has a tweeter, an up-firing driver and a woofer.
What is Dolby Atmos FlexConnect?
FlexConnect is a home theater audio technology that Dolby announced in 2023. It was available on TCL Z100 speakers last year, but LG’s Sound Suite marks the first time the feature is available on a more robust living room product that includes a soundbar. FlexConnect lets you position speakers anywhere in a room without sacrificing audio performance. The technology uses a TV or soundbar as the primary device to locate the speakers so the sound can be adjusted based on their positioning. The system can also quickly adapt when you move a speaker, such as for a party or other special occasion.
FlexConnect works as advertised, but there is one caveat that should have been obvious, even if I hadn’t anticipated it. Each time you add or remove speakers from a DAFC group, you will need to recalibrate the system, which includes the software playing the sounds from the speakers so that the TV or soundbar can locate them and Dolby technology adjusts their output. It doesn’t take long, but there is audible noise coming from every unit in the group, so you’ll need to factor in that time and the potential annoyance to anyone else in the house.
Other Sound Suite features
Sound Suite offers some of the same features as LG’s other home theater products. These include Night Mode, Room Calibration Pro, AI Sound Pro+ real-time audio scaling, and Clear Voice Pro+ for enhanced dialogue. For Sound Suite, LG also introduced Sound Follow, a feature that lets you adjust the system’s “sweet spot” based on where you’re sitting.
Once you set your current location with a simple tap on the ThinQ app, Sound Follow is supposed to change the levels and settings accordingly. I’m not entirely sure this worked on my system. Unlike my demo at CES, the seating position on the FlexConnect layout in the app was never updated. And even though the UI seemed to indicate that the change had been made when I pressed the buttons, I couldn’t hear any difference in the audio. I asked LG for more information to make sure Sound Follow works properly.
A word on configuration
Like most soundbars and speakers these days, you need to use an app to connect and configure them properly. And like Samsung, LG lets you do this through the same app that manages all of its connected devices, including home appliances. Once you unbox and plug in the Sound Suite speakers, you add them into the ThinQ app as a new home theater arrangement. The software shows you which speakers are available and lets you select the ones you want from the initial Dolby Atmos FlexConnect group.
The app will ask you to set the distance between the soundbar and your main seating area before running the sound optimization (adjustment) process. ThinQ will display the speaker layout and you can change the DAFC group at any time. However, if you move a speaker, you will need to run the optimization again to get the best audio performance. And if you’re using an LG TV as your primary device, this is all sorted on-screen rather than in the app.
Overall, the process is pretty straightforward, although I did experience some pretty significant and very frustrating connectivity issues. I review soundbars and speakers regularly, so I’m familiar with the process of using an app to connect devices to my home’s Wi-Fi to get them up and running. With the H7, it took a few days to connect it, which meant I could only use the soundbar with the audio options available in the LG C5’s menu and was unable to set up a larger Sound Suite setup. After restarting the router and soundbar several times, I was finally able to connect the H7 and become available to complete the installation. I’ve never had this problem before, so maybe LG did something different with the Wi-Fi components here.
When I added the M7 speakers to my DAFC setup, I had no problem connecting them to Wi-Fi initially. However, I had trouble adding them to the FlexConnect group, which required each Sound Suite element to play an audio calibration clip. On several occasions, the ThinQ app informed me that there was a connection problem with one of the M7s, although eventually they all got added anyway. I also had trouble removing the speakers from the arrangement. Even though the app said the sound was only coming from the H7 soundbar, one of the two M7 speakers was still connected and outputting sound even though I didn’t want it to. For some reason this only happened when playing music via AirPlay – TV audio via HDMI eARC still worked as expected.
If you’re using the TV as your primary device, you do all the setup on-screen. I found this method simpler and more reliable, even though it played the calibration sounds at a deafening volume. There is one big problem, however: when connected to the TV as a DAFC setup, the speaker settings were not available in either the ThinQ app or the on-screen menus. This meant I was stuck in standard mode, with things like AI Sound Pro+ inaccessible. I’ve asked LG for more information on this as it has a huge impact on the overall experience.
Which configuration seems best?
Before describing the different configurations of Sound Suite, I must make an important note about the limitations of the possible configurations. LG only allows a maximum of five speakers in any Sound Suite configuration, but you can mix and match them however you like. Remember, if you don’t opt for the H7 soundbar, you’ll need a compatible LG TV as your primary device for FlexConnect to work.
You can also use the M5 and M7 as standalone speakers in another room and swap them in and out of your living room or home theater setup as needed. In the multi-room scenario, the Sound Suite speakers work much like a Sonos system would, and the M7 is more than capable of being a standalone music speaker with plenty of detail and decent bass. I haven’t been able to test the M5, so I can’t vouch for that one. Keep in mind that if you opt for the M5 or M7 for your living room, you’ll need at least two of both to use FlexConnect with your LG TV.
After testing several Sound Suite setups, I think the combination of the H7 soundbar, W7 subwoofer, and two M7s is the ideal combination. I’m going to cover this a bit because I prefer to turn off the M7s in the back of the room when watching live TV – especially sports – because the same sound coming from the soundbar and these speakers didn’t really improve the experience. Additionally, the noise from the arena seemed too echoey and off-putting. This setup is well-suited for streaming TV shows and movies, things where Dolby Atmos, or at least LG’s spatial upscaling, is at the height of its powers.
In this configuration with the H7 in the lead, you get Sound Suite in its most immersive form. I still use Netflix Drive to survive This was my first test of a new home theater system, and the LG line handled it like a champ. You get great directional sound, which makes it seem like cars are circling around your living room. And the shots taken in the car are so enveloping that it’s as if you were seated directly behind the driver. This setup also works well for music, although I preferred using either one of the M7 speakers or the soundbar/sub duo rather than the whole shebang.
My second favorite configuration is four M7s. Again, this setup requires an LG TV as the primary device, but if you have one, you can definitely save space in front of your TV with separate front speakers. Unfortunately, you can’t use a subwoofer either, because if you’re using a TV to power the speakers, you can only add four. This is really disappointing, but the TV speakers will be used as a center (dialogue) channel amplifier, so it’s not a total waste. However, this arrangement would benefit from more bass.
The four-speaker setup could be particularly beneficial for people who wall-mount their TV and don’t want a soundbar underneath. And, again, FlexConnect lets you place the speakers anywhere, not necessarily next to your TV. You also have the ability to move these smaller speakers around when you need to, something you can’t really do with a soundbar. The only sacrifice I noticed on the audio front is that two M7s up front don’t provide the same overhanging feel for Atmos content as the H7’s speakers.
If you only use four M7 speakers for home theater tasks, you’ll appreciate the immersive audio these Sound Suite speakers will give you. There’s a lot of directional sound with Atmos content, and a lot of subtle details stand out in movies and shows. However, for live sports, this arrangement extracts commentary audio from the TV speakers and puts much of the arena/stadium noise into the rear M7s, sometimes making it difficult to hear the announcers. This is one area where the inability to adjust audio settings really hampers the experience.
If you’re hoping to invest in something that can pull double duty for music, I prefer an M7 or two for this purpose. And even if there’s a thump in the low frequencies, streaming your favorite tunes is the perfect time. re, you will notice the absence of this W7 subwoofer.
The competition
If you’re looking for alternatives to LG’s Sound Suite, you have to make some sacrifices. The only other option currently offering Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is the TCL Z100 speaker. Obviously you’ll need multiples of this $300 unit, and you’ll probably want to add the $350 subwoofer as well. Like the LG M7, you’ll need a compatible TCL TV to serve as the primary device for FlexConnect (a QM6K, QM7K, QM8K, QM9K, or X11L model). I have not tested these 1.1.1 channel units, so I cannot provide a direct comparison to the Sound Suite M5 or M7.
For those who can live without FlexConnect, Samsung’s Q990 series is still the best all-in-one setup you can buy. I haven’t reviewed one. since 2024 because the company is keen to offer new models with minimal updates, meaning the hardware and most features remain the same. THE HW-Q990H will be the final installment when it arrives later this year, with the biggest differentiator being a new dialogue boost called Sound Elevation.
Although the Q990 still comes with rear speakers and a subwoofer as well as a powerful soundbar, some features will only be available if you also own a Samsung TV. One of them is Q-Symphony, which uses TV speakers alongside the Q990’s drivers for more detailed and immersive sound. For the entire Q990 package, you’re looking at $2,000, which is $100 less than the comparable Sound Suite arrangement consisting of the H7 soundbar, two M5 speakers, and a W7 subwoofer.
Conclude
There’s no denying that LG has created a powerful and immersive living room experience with its Sound Suite line. I also like that the company lets customers decide what they need without sacrificing FlexConnect’s core appeal. While I encountered a few setup and software issues, these are issues LG can work out over time – Sound Suite is still brand new, after all. I’d like to see the company offer discounted bundles and continue to add more audio features over time to justify this significant investment. If you have a few thousand dollars to spend, especially if you have a newer LG TV, Sound Suite will be your best option for creating a home theater setup.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/lg-sound-suite-review-dolby-atmos-flexconnect-in-a-powerful-package-160000544.html?src=rss
