LG S95QR review

What the maker puts in writing

• “Enjoy best-in-class 9.1.5-channel sound with six-channel wireless rear speakers with up-firing height channels and subwoofer included, featuring a cen[tre channel]”
• “Dolby Atmos and DTS:X bring multidimensional sound to your room—including up-firing height channels”
• “Meridian Horizon upmixes two-channel sound for more immersive listening. Newly designed speaker driver, chamber, and subwoofer improves sound pressure”
• “Made to seamlessly enhance LG TV performance, control the sound bar with your LG TV remote”
• “AI Room Calibration Pro optimizes sound in your room with spatial awareness technology”

Five height channels, and some of them are behind you

A channel count reads front . sub . height. 9.1.5 is nine horizontal channels, one subwoofer and five up-firing drivers.

The sentence that matters is in the first bullet: six-channel wireless rear speakers with up-firing height channels.

So the rears are not plain surrounds. They carry their own ceiling-bounced drivers — which means the height layer exists behind you as well as in front.

That is what an Atmos mix is actually written for: objects placed overhead-front and overhead-rear, moving between them.

The rest of this shelf: Samsung’s two 3.1.2 bars have two height drivers, both at the front, and its European HW-Q930H four. LG’s own S70TY has one, and Nakamichi’s Shockwafe 9.2.4 four. Eight bars have none. Only four Nakamichi systems have more, at six, for $1,677 to $3,579 on October 25, 2026.

Which is why the calibration belongs here

Up-firing drivers do not fire at you. They fire at the ceiling, and you hear what comes back.

So the whole effect rests on a variable the manufacturer cannot control: ceiling height, flatness, absorbency. Sloped plaster scatters it; acoustic tile swallows it.

With five height drivers, that is five effects standing or falling on your room.

AI Room Calibration Pro optimizes sound in your room with spatial awareness technology.

Several bars here calibrate the room; this is the only one doing it for five height channels. The $988 Nakamichi Shockwafe 9.2.4 publishes none.

Against the Nakamichi at $988

LG S95QR — $699.99 — 9.1.5 — five height channels, rears with their own up-firing drivers, AI Room Calibration Pro, Meridian Horizon upmixing, 14,969 g.

Nakamichi Shockwafe 9.2.4 — $988 — two 10-inch subwoofers, four height channels, four discrete surround speakers, 3 HDMI inputs, and a published size notice (bar 45.5 in, subs 20.2 in tall at 23.8 lb each). 36,287 g.

LG gives one more height channel and calibration. Nakamichi gives two ten-inch subwoofers and HDMI switching.

Bass first: Nakamichi. Height layer first: LG.

Meridian, and a center channel

Meridian Horizon upmixes stereo across all nine channels — which matters more than it sounds, because most of what people watch is not Atmos. Broadcast television, older films and most streaming music are two-channel.

And there is a center channel, so dialogue has its own driver. Most bars under $300 on this shelf are 2.0 or 2.1, where the voice floats between two speakers.

What is not published

No dimensions at all, on a system of four separate boxes. That is the gap, and Nakamichi is the only maker here that fills it — with a capitalized “IMPORTANT SIZE NOTICE” on each of its listings, because one of its bars is 58 inches wide and one of its subwoofers weighs 80 lb.

No power figure, where JBL publishes 750 W and Nakamichi 3000. No subwoofer driver size, where JBL publishes 10 inches and Sony 160 mm.

14,969 g is published, which makes this the heaviest system here outside Nakamichi.