LG Is Adding Features to Speakers You Already Own, and Will Not Say What It Costs

LG is updating its modular Sound Suite system, with the H7 soundbar at the centre, adding DTS:X support, Google Cast for streaming music and podcasts, 6GHz and 5GHz DFS networking, and the option to run two W7 subwoofers at once. What LG has not said is the price of the system, or whether the update is free.

The update itself is the good half of modern home audio. A speaker that gains a streaming protocol through software is a speaker that got better after you paid for it, which is the opposite of how most hardware ages. I have repaired my own home theatre rather than replace it, so a system designed to be extended instead of discarded is exactly the kind of thing I want to exist.

The silence about money is the other half, and it is not a small omission. “New features” with no word on whether they are included is the shape of an announcement that is counting on you to assume the generous answer. If it is free, say free. The companies that mean it say it in the first line.

So this is two stories at once: a system worth watching, and a press release that avoids the only question a buyer has. I am not going to pretend one cancels the other.

So, do I buy it? Not yet, and not because of the hardware. Wait for LG to publish the price of the system and confirm the update costs nothing. If both answers are good, a modular setup you can grow over years is a sensible way to buy audio. If either is bad, you learned it before paying.