LG Music Flow or Sonos?

[56mimosa]

Does anyone has an opinion on this?

Appreciate any review or comment? What are the components in each of the package that you have?

 

[lcheetec]

Does anyone has an opinion on this?

Appreciate any review or comment? What are the components in each of the package that you have?

I have been doing some research on these two the last few hours, and I've come to some conclusions:

- The Sonos is pricier, with the Playbar and the Sub separately at S$1,200 each, while the Music Flow HS6 comes with the sub and is S$799 (I think). The other components, H3 vs Play:1, H5 vs Play:3 etc. also has the Sonos priced higher, but about 30 ~ 40%
- The Sonos sounds very good, from a demo I heard back in Dec 2013 and a few times subsequently; I have not heard the LG yet
- Both have limited input options, especially if you have analog sources such as turntables etc. The LG does have a HDMI ARC input which interfaces well with TV's with this feature. I depend on this, so it's a deal-breaker for me (for the Sonos, which lacks the ARC interface). With the Sonos, you need to use the optical interface

Other thoughts:
I actually want to use the soundbar as the centre speaker, with 2 of the single speakers as the L and R. I am not sure I can do this, since the whole design intention of the soundbar is to remove the need for the L & R.

I am leaning towards the LG.

Let me know what you decide on, if you do buy something.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

 

[lcheetec]

I have been doing some research on these two the last few hours, and I've come to some conclusions:

- The Sonos is pricier, with the Playbar and the Sub separately at S$1,200 each, while the Music Flow HS6 comes with the sub and is S$799 (I think). The other components, H3 vs Play:1, H5 vs Play:3 etc. also has the Sonos priced higher, but about 30 ~ 40%
- The Sonos sounds very good, from a demo I heard back in Dec 2013 and a few times subsequently; I have not heard the LG yet
- Both have limited input options, especially if you have analog sources such as turntables etc. The LG does have a HDMI ARC input which interfaces well with TV's with this feature. I depend on this, so it's a deal-breaker for me (for the Sonos, which lacks the ARC interface). With the Sonos, you need to use the optical interface

Other thoughts:
I actually want to use the soundbar as the centre speaker, with 2 of the single speakers as the L and R. I am not sure I can do this, since the whole design intention of the soundbar is to remove the need for the L & R.

I am leaning towards the LG.

Let me know what you decide on, if you do buy something.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

I did buy the HS6, to start, from Gain City at Changi City Point. Look forward to setting it up tomorrow.

daniel

 

[56mimosa]

I did buy the HS6, to start, from Gain City at Changi City Point. Look forward to setting it up tomorrow.

daniel

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the input in your first post !

I have not made my purchase yet. Quite disappointed with many salesmen in several stores such as Audio House, Best and Harvey. Many of them don't even know what is 'music flow'. All that they know is LG sound bar like NB3540, 5450...etc.

Look forward for your review after setting up !!!

Very excited to know....

 

[lcheetec]

Actually, the reason I made such a quick purchase was, perhaps the guys at Gain City (the Changi City Point branch, which closed for good last night, and are moving to Sungei Kadut etc.) were very good! In fact, once I asked about the HS6, two of them appeared pleasantly surprised and asked how I knew about the Music Flow series as it was so new. So we chatted a while.

Anyway, I will be going back to Marina Square today to see if they have the H7. One of the sakesmen (Ryan) quoted me S$549 which is quite a lot lower than the list price.

I've set it up, Sunday morning. Very easy, as my main connections are the TV (using HDMI/ARC), my AC-Ryan Veolo 4k (HDMI-in) and (this morning) a couple of turntables via the Portable-In connection. I was a little worried, as I am moving from a Yamaha AV-Receiver which has a zillion inputs. I have two turntables, so only one can be connected at a time. I am hoping with a couple of H7's, I will have two more Portable-Inputs.

Anyway, soundwise, what can I say? It sounds ok, but it was quite a lot better with my Yamaha RX-V575 playing through my Acoustic Energy's (AELite 3 floorstanders). I am hoping the multi-room feature makes up for this. The number of listening modes are quite few, and are good enough for movies, but again, for 2 channel music listening, if that's a priority for you, it will not quite cut it (in my opinion).

Oh, the subwoofer goes down sufficiently low, but in my time, I've experienced very good subs (albeit a long time ago) like the Velodyne FSR-18 and the REL Stentor (which belonged to a friend) so this was ok for the price. I recalled listening to the Sonos Playbar and the Sub (together with several Play:X's) and they sounded better too. I got the LG as I wanted to try something new, and it was cheaper (HS6 vs Playbar + Sub). The standalone speakers are closer in price.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

 

[akagi07]

anyone has any idea of SRP of these units?

 

[56mimosa]

Actually, the reason I made such a quick purchase was, perhaps the guys at Gain City (the Changi City Point branch, which closed for good last night, and are moving to Sungei Kadut etc.) were very good! In fact, once I asked about the HS6, two of them appeared pleasantly surprised and asked how I knew about the Music Flow series as it was so new. So we chatted a while.

Anyway, I will be going back to Marina Square today to see if they have the H7. One of the sakesmen (Ryan) quoted me S$549 which is quite a lot lower than the list price.

I've set it up, Sunday morning. Very easy, as my main connections are the TV (using HDMI/ARC), my AC-Ryan Veolo 4k (HDMI-in) and (this morning) a couple of turntables via the Portable-In connection. I was a little worried, as I am moving from a Yamaha AV-Receiver which has a zillion inputs. I have two turntables, so only one can be connected at a time. I am hoping with a couple of H7's, I will have two more Portable-Inputs.

Anyway, soundwise, what can I say? It sounds ok, but it was quite a lot better with my Yamaha RX-V575 playing through my Acoustic Energy's (AELite 3 floorstanders). I am hoping the multi-room feature makes up for this. The number of listening modes are quite few, and are good enough for movies, but again, for 2 channel music listening, if that's a priority for you, it will not quite cut it (in my opinion).

Oh, the subwoofer goes down sufficiently low, but in my time, I've experienced very good subs (albeit a long time ago) like the Velodyne FSR-18 and the REL Stentor (which belonged to a friend) so this was ok for the price. I recalled listening to the Sonos Playbar and the Sub (together with several Play:X's) and they sounded better too. I got the LG as I wanted to try something new, and it was cheaper (HS6 vs Playbar + Sub). The standalone speakers are closer in price.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

Thank you daniel ! However, it doesn't seem like you are impressed at all judging at your comment of 'ok' only

 

[lcheetec]

I knew it was a compromise. I wasn't looking for absolute sound quality, since I am quite familiar with how to do that, and a thin/sleek soundbar will definitely not cut it.

However, I was looking for a solution that would allow maximum flexibility, such as multi-room capability, ability to mix and match, and perhaps a decent surround system. I can easily re-deploy speakers in other rooms if I want, and so on.

So yes, if you are looking for very good sound quality, the HS6 does not cut it. Perhaps the H7 might, but I haven't bought that yet. I am pretty sure it would sound as good as my AELite 3's, however.

daniel

 

[onglaipeter]

I'm toward sonos

 

[lcheetec]

I'm deeply entrenched now. I just bought two more H7's. I'll be setting them up tonight or tomorrow night.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

 

[56mimosa]

I'm deeply entrenched now. I just bought two more H7's. I'll be setting them up tonight or tomorrow night.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

Wow... wow !! Looking forward for your review !! Hope the H7 will change your experience !?

I am holding my horse waiting for your input

 

[56mimosa]

One more question : Does the H7, H5 and H3 come in a pair or one piece each?

 

[lcheetec]

The HX's are sold singly, and I bought the last pair from Gain City Marina Square. I got to know the guy from the Changi City Point store when I bought the HS6, so I called him for the H7's too.

Anyway, the app was still a little buggy, and when I installed the new speakers last night, it kept complaining about updating the firmware but didn't quite get to it. I decided to initialize everything this morning (including the HS6) and tried again. It worked, and the last remaining H7 was updated (one updated late last night).

How do they sound? Nice! It was very pleasant, and better than I remember the Play:5 sounding! The jury's still out using them as a Stereo pair, since the driver profiles might not be optimal (more on this later; I have a meeting in 2 minutes I need to get to), but alone, they sound very sweet, ever with lower res than flac streaming music!

daniel

 

[LuNaOcEaN]

If u are into high resolution audio, can try bluesound. There is a showroom at shaw tower

 

[onglaipeter]

If u are into high resolution audio, can try bluesound. There is a showroom at shaw tower

what the entry price range?

 

[lcheetec]

For folks who are looking at the LG Music Flow. For others, my apologies.

I finally did pair the two H7's into a Stereo pair this morning, or so I thought. When I tried them again this afternoon, I realized each speaker has a channel-mode setting (not for the HS6, however, just the H7 and I think the H5; the H3 is mono so it's defaulted to either L or R).

Let me explain: you can set the H7 as a "Stereo" so that the left and right drivers play like the would in separate L and R, but in a single speaker. This is when you use it singly. However, if you pair them with another H7, you can set one as L only, and the other as R, so you get a stereo pair. Before I realized this, I was afraid there would be some cancellations if both played the same "Stereo" material and would either reduce or create nulls/reinforcements in the listening area. Basically, not good. But this "mono" switch on each speaker solves the problem.

Experimenting using the HS6 along with the pair of H7's so I get some bass off the subwoofer. Just tried it, will try it some more.

daniel
Upper Changi Road

 

[DarkAngelAceV2]

Tried the H3 and H5 at COURTS Tamp. I agree with TS how poorly educated the sales ppl are. It took 3 of them to figure out how to pair either bluetooth or wifi through their android phones (all of which were unsuccessful). I used my own iphone and got it working in less than a min.

Ease of use:
I would say the way the design needs abit more work. The volume dial feels cheap and wobbly.

Sound:
Very particular about sound. Played Jazz / Rock / Acoustic, most of which the sound quality seemed flat and whats another word for shitty sound.

SoundBar:
The sound bar had more hope but failed in producing good balance between speech and explosive scenes.

In the end i invested myself with Sonos playbar and a Play:3

 

[lcheetec]

For folks who are looking at the LG Music Flow. For others, my apologies.

I bought some stands from Ikea (PS 2014 Storage, with top), which allows me to stack my LP's below and weigh them down. I also installed 3M bump-on's so that they are properly coupled to the floor, and between the top and rack.

Ah, that made a bid difference! The H7's are now about 10" further apart than before (when they were about 7' apart and almost directly against the back of my media cabinet). They are now almost 9' apart, and about 18" in front, about 30" high (meaning ear level when I am on my sofa; previously, they were about 4" higher).

First track I played was "Do you want to build a snowman" from Frozen! Then "Let it Go", of course the Idina Menzel version. Much better...

I also played around with the equalizer as moving the speakers further out meant that they lost some of the woofiness (low frequencies). I boosted bass a little (you can boost just bass and treble, nothing else) and it all came together, so far.

I am still having problems getting connected to my flac files, so still troubleshooting. All music so far are off Deezer or Spotify.

daniel
Upper Changi

 

[56mimosa]

There is a roadshow at the basement of Bedok Point for LG Music Flow under Denki. The promoter is very knowledgeable. If you buy the HS6 with subwoofer at $749. There is $100 Choice voucher.

Sent from Samsung SM-G900F using GAGT

 

[lcheetec]

I found out yesterday Deezer was rolling out lossless music streaming over Sonos and Bose, but there are currently no plans on LG's Music Flow since those two are the only two platforms that support it, so this is info for anyone choosing between Sonos and Music Flow.

Since I've already bought into it (and enjoying it), I'm going to hope they firmware upgrade the support in the near future.

BTW, the update I got was from Deezer, not LG, plus I've escalated the NAS issue to LG's app support.

daniel
Upper Changi