LG Electronics has let loose another piece in the company’s ever growing collection of wireless audio gear this evening, taking the tarp off the latest Music Flow sound bar, the LAS855M.
Styled with a curve to match LG’s collection of similarly curved OLED TVs, LG touts the LAS855M’s “graceful” style, while highlighting the bar’s significant power plant of a claimed 360 watts of muscle. That pushes four on-board drivers, as well as the system’s accompanying wireless subwoofer.
The bar can be wall mounted, though users will likely only want to follow that route if they’ve already mounted their curved TV — a sort of sculptor’s style entertainment system, if you will, popping off the wall from a side profile.
As part of LG’s Music Flow system, the bar works in conjunction with other Music Flow components as a multi-room home sound solution, similar to systems from Sonos, and others. This allows users to not only connect traditional hard-wired sources like a TV, but also utilize Wi-Fi to stream music from iOS or Android devices, PCs, Macs, or Chromebooks over Google Cast. Those with multiple Music Flow components could potentially create a wireless surround system, stream a single song to multiple speakers throughout the home, or stream different songs to each Music Flow piece, all from a central app.
While nearly everything about LG’s new curved bar screams state-of-the-art, the system is a little behind when it comes to supporting streaming services, boasting support for Google Play Music, Pandora, and Rdio, among others, but leaving Spotify and Apple Music off the list. We expect those services to come on board, though the Music Flow system as a whole has been around for about a year or more at this point.
Other features for the LAS855M include HDMI passthrough for easy connection of components like game consoles or Blu-ray players through the bar, Bluetooth wireless connection, compatibility with TV remotes from eight manufacturers, and LG’s i-Sound mode, which auto-adjusts DSP in accordance with the sound source.
LG’s LAS855M will be available in October, at a suggested retail price of $699.