Another brick in the (sound) wall

LG Ultra-Slim Height Metallic Soundbar NB4540 could be the perfect match for your wall-mounted LCD TV. The 4.1-channel system features 320 watts of audio output, a wireless subwoofer for generating powerful bass, and Bluetooth sound streaming.

The sound bar looks sleek in metallic design. It is only 35mm slim and 840mm long. It can be mounted on the wall neatly under your LCD TV and take over the sound system of your TV to produce more powerful and higher-quality sound than your TV speakers. Two wall brackets, two screws and an installation guide are provided.

The wireless subwoofer needs no installation. You just connect its power plug to a socket and, when you turn out the sound bar, the subwoofer is wirelessly connected to the system automatically.

The sound bar is made up of four speakers – two front channels and two surround channels. Each of the four channels has 40 watts of music output, while the subwoofer has 160. And you can separately increase the volume of the subwoofer to suit your taste.

The display panel is neatly hidden under the front speaker grill. It will display the function being used, folder name, playback time and sound-file information when the system is turned on.

At the back of the main unit or sound bar, an HDMI-in, HDMI-out, a USB port, an optical-in port and 3.5mm stereo jack are located. So you can connect its optical-in to optical-out port of your TV to use the NB4540 sound system instead of the TV speakers. You can connect an HDMI cable from your Blu-ray disc player or HD movie player to the NB4540 and connect its HDMI out to the TV to pass through the movie picture to the TV.

If your TV supports HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) and ARC (Audio Return Channel), you can use High Speed HDMI cable with Ethernet to connect the sound bar's HDMI Out to the TV HDMI In and all the TV audio signal will be relayed to be played on the sound-bar system.

The NB4540 is also designed to support audio sync function with LG TV, either with Bluetooth connection or with an optical cable connection.

If you love to play music on your phone, you will enjoy the Bluetooth audio streaming function of the NB4540. It can be easily Bluetooth-linked to your phone and the sound-bar system supports A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) for ensuring the quality of the wireless music streaming.

It's good that the NB4540 supports high-resolution audio formats of FLAC in 24bit/192kHz, which has higher quality than an audio CD. It also supports MP3 files of up to 48kHz sampling rate and 320kbp bit-rate as well as WMA files of 48kHz and 128kbp and OGG files of up to 48kHz and 500kbp.

During our test I found that the sound-bar system was very loud and powerful, generating music sounds to fill my large living room. I could hear and enjoy front surround sounds and the effect separation of the left and right channels was clear.

But since the room was too large, the sound-bar system could not generate immersive sound by simulating back surrounds. The immersive sound environment can be achieved in a small bedroom or living room of a condominium, for example.

I enjoyed listening to music streamed from my Sony Ericsson Xperia phone. Bluetooth connection was a breeze. And the music sounded clear and powerful, especially with the "bass" audio effect.

Other available sound effects are Standard without equaliser, News with clear and improving quality of voice sound, Music, Cinema, and Sports with ore dynamic sounds.

I connected the NB4540 to my Blu-ray disc player and watched the movies "The Fast and Furious 4" and "Terminator Salvation". The sound-bar system generated very loud sound effects and the subwoofer generated very powerful explosion sounds. The system decoded the hi-res audio of the movies (DTS-HD) well.

I tried playing music stored on a USB drive and the system played most sound files smoothly, reproducing clear and detailed music, especially when playing loss-less FLAC files.

I tried listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" coded in 24bit/192 kHz and noticed a high quality of music. But when the player changed to the next track, there was a silence for about one or two seconds. It should be fine for playing tracks with such moments of silence between tracks, but for continuous "conceptual" music, the unexpected silence could be a problem.

I had no problem playing the Scorpions "Gold Ballads" in the 24-bit/96kHz format.

LG NB4540 retails for Bt13,990.

 

 

KEY SPECS

Amplifier power: 320 watts (40W x 2 for front speakers, 40W x 2 for surround speakers and 160W for subwoofer)

Input/output: Optical jack, 3.5mm stereo jack, HDMI IN, HDMI OUT, USB 1.1

Main unit dimensions: 840 x 35 x 82mm

Main unit weight: 1.55kg

Subwoofer dimensions: 221 x 351.5 x 281mm

Subwoofer weight: 7.32kg