- The UK price of LG’s new Sound Suite Dolby Atmos FlexConnect soundbar and speakers has changed
- The flagship soundbar is now £900, the sub is £600 and the wireless speakers are now £400 and £250
- This brings them in line with Sonos products, but the system is more flexible.
LG has changed the previously announced UK price for its Sound Suite modular Dolby Atmos FlexConnect soundbar and speaker system, and this price makes them a real threat to Sonos equivalents.
The H7 soundbar is now £900 instead of £1000; the W7 subwoofer costs £600 instead of £700; and the M7 wireless speaker has been reduced to £400 instead of £450.
However, one price has gone up. The M5 wireless speaker, the cheapest in the range, has changed price and is now £250 instead of the previously announced £250.
In the US, you’re looking at $999 for the H7 soundbar, $599 for the W7 sub, $399 for the M7 speaker, and $249 for the M5 speaker.
I suspect the prices overall will cause some raised eyebrows at Sonos HQ: not only are the H7 soundbar, W7 subwoofer and M7 speaker matching or cheaper than the equivalent Sonos products (Sonos Arc Ultra, Sonos Sub 4 and Sonos Era 300), but they’re also more flexible.
This is because Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is not just a brand; It’s a smart way to set up surround sound speakers that means you don’t have to follow the old home theater rules.
Why Flexibility Might Be FlexConnect’s Best Feature
Like many audiovisual companies, Sonos’ surround sound is excellent, but it expects you to have a simple setup: soundbar centered in the front, surround speakers on either side behind you, and you perfectly positioned in front of the center of the screen.
And that’s one of the reasons I don’t have a Sonos setup, because like many homes, my living room is actively hostile to symmetrical layouts. It was built in the 1960s, when a 20-inch CRT was considered a large screen television.
There’s only one place in the room where my TV can sit, and to accommodate it, I have to place my surround speakers in strange, asymmetrical places. That’s why I opted for a wired setup: my AV receiver lets me specify the heights and distances of my speakers, and then runs the sums and sets delays and levels to compensate for the less-than-perfect placement.
If I were purchasing a new system now, I would definitely consider FlexConnect.
FlexConnect essentially does what my AV receiver does, but even more convenient: I had to get out the tape measure, but as long as you have a suitable hub, FlexConnect maps the room automatically. In the case of LG, the sound bar or a new LG T can act as a hub.
This means you can have a soundbar and a rear speaker, or perhaps three speakers in an odd triangle if that’s what suits you, and the system will adjust its output to sound like a traditional surround setup.
We’re still in the early days of this technology, but what we’ve seen (and, more importantly, what we’ve heard) is very impressive. If it delivers on LG’s promises and is adopted by a number of TV and audio manufacturers, it could create some very serious competition for the best sound bars.
This leaves Sonos looking old and dated, with its increasingly advanced speaker system still locked in static positions, and according to my colleague Matt Bolton, the LG system sounds good too…
The best sound bars for all budgets
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