Sound quality: In its Standard sound mode LG's SJ8 delivers sound quality that falls in the good range - it reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. The bass has good impact and goes fairly deep, but is somewhat prominent and a bit boomy. The midrange is somewhat hazy, nasal, and grainy. The treble is somewhat extended, but is thin and a somewhat sizzly. This model does a so-so job of recovering the natural room ambience of recordings (the sense of the acoustic space in which the music was recorded); in general the sound is somewhat congested. The various sound modes have a very slight to noticeable effect on the sound - the Standard and ASC modes sound very similar, Bass Blast sounds similar to Standard but with more prominent bass, and the Cinema sound mode makes the sound field wider and taller, but is loud, echoey, and bassy. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the HDMI, optical, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi inputs. The system can provide satisfying volume in a medium sized room.
TV setup and ease of use: Very good overall. Setup: HDMI CEC (LG calls it SIMPLINK) activation and deactivation is done on the connected TV and not on the SJ8. The instructions that come with this unit refer to on-line instructions. When a HDMI CEC connection is not used the soundbar can still be set to be controlled by TV remotes from LG and other major brands, and LG's Sound Sync function provides TV remote volume and mute control of the soundbar via an optical or a proprietary wireless connection when used with compatible LG TVs. Activation and deactivation of these features is quick and easy, but not intuitive so easy to follow instructions in the on-line manual have to be referred to. The system comes with an optical cable for TV connection, an HDMI cable must be purchased separately if you want or need it to connect your TV. Ease of Use: This model has many options that allow it to work seamlessly with your TV - It can be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of HDMI CEC compatible TVs when connected via the HDMI ARC ports with and HDMI cable. It can also be set to respond to the volume and mute commands of TV remotes from many major brands including LG, and to be controlled by LG TV remotes by a proprietary optical or wireless connection. Its own physical remote seems somewhat cluttered but is not difficult to use. App remotes that operate via WiFi can also be downloaded onto Apple and Android mobile devices; we found these remotes to be easy to use and glitch-free. The soundbar console's power and volume controls are marked with commonly used symbols but the source control uses a non-standard label; the actual control buttons are on the back of the soundbar and are hard to see and access. Although there is no mute control, if the soundbar has been muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The display is visible from the typical listening position and can be used in conjunction with app remote screens. It shows on/standby status, has text source selection, mute, and DSP effects mode, and numeric volume level indicators, but lacks a surround/stereo status indication for optional surround sound operation.
Features setup and ease of use: Good overall. Setup: Network streaming setup using a WiFi or LAN connection requires an app download to an Apple or Android mobile device and is straight forward. For LAN connections a LAN cable is needed, but not provided. Bluetooth pairing is very easy - if no Bluetooth device has previously been paired or the paired device does not have Bluetooth activated the soundbar is automatically in pairing mode once it has been switched on. Ease of Use: The SJ8's physical remote seems somewhat cluttered but is not difficult to use. The Apple and Android apps that are downloaded for network setup also act as remotes that operate via WiFi. We found both the general sections (used to control the soundbar like a typical physical remote) and the streaming content player sections (used to play audio streamed from the Internet, the mobile device, or from a computer on your home network) of these app remotes to be easy to navigate, well marked, well organized, and glitch-free. The soundbar console's power and volume controls are marked with commonly used symbols but the source control uses a non-standard label; the actual control buttons are on the back of the soundbar and are hard to see and access. Although there is no mute control, if the soundbar has been muted from the remote pressing one of the console volume buttons unmutes it. The display is visible from the typical listening position and can be used in conjunction with app remote screens. It shows on/standby status, has text source selection, mute, and DSP effects mode, and numeric volume level indicators, but lacks a surround/stereo status indication for optional surround sound operation. The console has inputs for HDMI ARC digital video/audio and optical digital audio connections. The optical input is provided as an alternate connection for TVs that lack HDMI ARC, not as a separate connection for another device. These two inputs are covered under one source and the soundbar uses on or the other depending on what's connected; if both are connected the HDMI ARC TV connection takes priority.
