LG Music Flow HS9 review: A giant multiroom soundbar

LG has taken full advantage of the added size of the soundbar in order to pack in an impressive seven drivers for a total of 525W of power output. This means there’s a separate driver for the left, right, centre, rear and side channels. The subwoofer also packs 175W of power.

While the HS9 is therefore technically a 7.1 system, don’t expect true surround sound. It’s still all very front-driven although the sheer number of speakers inside does at least mean the sound is more widely distributed than most soundbars.

Watching both Avatar and Gravity, which both make great use of the rear channels for dialogue and sound effects, the HS9 wasn’t able to emulate true rear speakers, even with its virtual surround mode turned on. If you want a proper surround sound experience, you’ll want to use separate MusicFlow speakers as your rear channels. As with the Sonos Playbar, augmenting its capabilities will become rather expensive, however.

The Dynamic Range Control can be turned on or off and with it on it helps with clarity at lower volumes and is a good alternative to using the full Night mode that muffles the sound in favour of not disturbing your neighbours. Conversely, if you’re looking for volume, the HS9 is hard to beat, filling a large room with consummate ease.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering it can be used as multiroom music player, the HS9 sounded great with our music test tracks. It had plenty of presence in the mid frequencies, meaning instruments had good levels of detail and clarity, while the subwoofer delivered the low-end in a refined manner.

Ultimately, the LG MusicFlow HS9 is a solid soundbar and a decent choice if you happen to have already bought into a MusicFlow multiroom system. It’s good value considering you get a multiroom-capable soundbar that also includes an active subwoofer as standard.

If you’re just starting out, the Sonos Playbar is a better choice, however, as is the Sonos multiroom system as a whole. If multiroom doesn’t interest you at all, the Philips Fidelio XS1 SoundStage is a fantastic choice for a whole lot less money and it won’t dominate your living room. You can see other alternatives in the Expert Reviews best soundbar guide.