Why You Can Trust CNET LG LAB540W SoundPlate review: Pricey sound bar that plays discs, too
The LG LAB540W SoundPlate packs Blu-ray and Smart TV functionality into an impossibly thin audio package, but you'll pay for the all-in-one convenience.
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When it comes to sound bars and other home-audio solutions, you need to consider what you'll mostly use it for: music or watching movies? Most of these devices perform decidedly better with one type of content, and unless you want to invest in a setup with discrete components, there are few Jacks of all trades. While perfectly decent with movies, the LG SoundPlate is decidedly in the music camp, which is a little surprising given it features a built-in Blu-ray player.
LG LAB540W SoundPlate
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
At a retail price of $600 USD, the LG LAB540W is far from cheap, but it does a lot for the money, including 3D Blu-ray playback, some input switching, and Bluetooth. Image quality is comparable a $100 Blu-ray player; if you don't need disc playback, LG offers the drive-less LAP340 ($280 USD street price), although that model lacks the wireless subwoofer. But if you're looking for all-in-one home-theater system that cuts down on clutter in the living room, the LAB540 is a fine choice, even if it should cost a little less.
Design
The LG is one of the thinnest speaker bases I've seen, at just 1.6 inches high -- which, amazingly, includes room for a slot-in optical drive. If you're even mildly OCD though (as I am), then the fact that the drive isn't centered on the front might bug you -- it's about 1 inch to the left of center. To the right of this is a six-character LED display.
The cabinet is designed to hold TVs of up to 55 inches, but this depends also on the base style of your TV. The pretzel-like back end of the 55-inch LG 55LA8600 (shown above) didn't quite look stable enough perched upon the SoundPlate for everyday use.
The unit comes in an attractive silver finish and features top-mounted capacitive buttons for playback. Meanwhile, the Power and Eject buttons are placed at opposite ends of the slot-in drive. Be aware that the main unit is plastic, not metal, and I found that it scuffs pretty easily.
The SoundPlate includes four 40W speakers on the main unit: two in front for stereo and two corner-mounted drivers for surround effects. The unit also comes with separate wireless sub that's the size of a small trash can at 11.7 inches by 11.7 inches and 13 inches deep.
The remote is unusually large and includes a lot of buttons that are probably unnecessary, such as a prominent Sound Effect button and a Sleep key.
The menu system is the same one LG uses on its Blu-ray players and includes shortcuts to popular apps at the bottom of the screen. It is fairly easy to use with a simple grid layout.
Features
The big differentiating feature on the SoundPlate is its built-in optical disk drive and Smart TV functionality. At $600, you're definitely paying for those features, as well as the convenience of having it all integrated into a single unit. Wi-Fi is included for connecting to your home network, as well as Bluetooth for streaming audio from smartphones and tablets.
The Smart TV suite includes most of the major apps you'd like to see, including Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Spotify.
The LAB540W can upscale to 4K, but given that your fancy new 4K TV probably has a very good scaler in it, there's not much point in using the SoundPlate to accomplish this.
If you have a collection of music on a PC or NAS, the unit does DLNA streaming and helpfully lists available servers as shortcuts on its home page.
Performance
Video
If you're worried that the SoundPlate's integrated Blu-ray player won't perform as well as a standalone unit, I can put your fears to rest. The SoundPlate performs to the same standard as a standalone Blu-ray player and was able to upscale DVD to acceptable levels, with our "Star Trek: Insurrection" test lacking the moire noise I've seen on lesser players.
Likewise, the LG passed all of the image tests we threw at it for both Blu-ray and DVD. In addition, its speedy wireless connection and decent image processing meant that it was able to present and maintain stable image quality from a test scene of "Lost."
Audio
While you can't expect the utmost in high fidelity due to its tiny size, listening to music on the LAB540W was quite pleasant. The subwoofer integrates very well with the main base, and there's plenty of vocal detail and treble sparkle. Only on very rare occasions did the treble become a little ragged.
This thing can get loud, too! At full volume, it didn't fall apart as much as competitive systems could. There was an absence of obvious distortion, and it could easily power a polite dance party in your living room. I put on party anthem "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk and while the song was "there," it sounded unusually urgent, like the bass player wanted to take a break and so was pushing to finish quicker. This probably has to do with the high 24/96 bit rate of the file, as no other music did this.
If you like "talky" movies or TV shows, then the LG does a very good job of reproducing dialogue with a very natural timbre. For the purposes of this test, I compared it to the Sony HT-CT770 ($400 USD street price) sound bar. Using a sequence from "Avatar" (26:53) the Sony sounded more cupped than the LG, almost as if the actors were speaking with a hand over their mouths. The sense of envelopment was a little better on the Sony, but it wasn't of the "ooh, there's insects flying right behind me" kind --more of a surround white noise than detailed effects. With the added thwak of the subwoofer, the SoundPlate isn't completely at sea during action movies, with it delivering plenty of impact during explosions, monstrous animal footfalls, and the like.
Conclusion
While I'm not sure devices like this will take off -- most people already have a disc player or game console --the LAB540W is nevertheless a solid performer with excellent design aesthetics. The interplay between the main unit and the sub is well-integrated and cohesive. If you're looking for something with more pure popcorn thrills, then you may be better off with another sound bar, but the LAB540W handles itself well enough for films and is better than average with music.