LG and Dolby Shake Up Home Theater Audio With First-Ever FlexConnect Soundbar

The days of rearranging your living room furniture to accommodate your speakers are effectively over. LG Electronics and Dolby Laboratories have just upended the traditional home audio rulebook with a partnership that promises to fix the biggest headache in home theater: placement.

The End of Rigid Speaker Placement

The headline feature here is the arrival of Dolby FlexConnect in a consumer-ready ecosystem. We first saw prototypes of this tech back in 2023, but it has finally matured into a mass-market reality.

Traditional surround sound is demanding. It wants symmetry. It wants specific angles. It wants you to move your bookshelf. This new LG soundbar takes a different approach: put the wireless speakers anywhere. Hide one behind a fern, stick another on a high corner shelf, or stash one on a side table. The system uses microphones to map the room's acoustics and AI to figure out where the speakers are relative to the listener.

According to Dolby’s blog, the calibration process via the companion app takes less than two minutes. The result is a system that creates an optimized audio map—moving the "sweet spot" to you, rather than forcing you to sit in a specific chair. LG claims this effectively democratizes high-end audio, stripping away the compromise between interior design and sound quality.

Pricing, Specs, and Launch Timeline

We finally have the hard numbers on when you can buy this thing and how much it will hurt your wallet.

The global rollout kicks off in Q2 2026 (April–June), though eager adopters can secure pre-orders starting in March.

• Release Date: Q2 2026; Pre-orders in March.
• Pricing: You're looking at $799 USD for the base 5.1-channel setup. If you want the full works—extra wireless subs and rear channels—the premium tier lands at $1,299 USD.
• Performance: It's not just smart; it's loud. The system pushes 510W RMS and handles up to 7.1.4 channels, supporting both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
• Hardware: Crucially, the wireless satellites pack a 10-hour battery life, meaning you won't have to snake power cables up your walls just to get surround sound for movie night.

While the price tag definitely puts LG in the ring with heavyweight incumbents, the market seems ready for it. IDC projections point to a potential 500,000 units moving in the first year, riding a wave of 15% annual growth in the premium soundbar space.

A Challenge to Samsung and Sonos

Let's be real: no one actually puts their speakers in the perfect spot. LG is finally admitting that, and it gives them a massive leg up on the competition.

Where Samsung’s Q-Symphony ecosystem insists on brand loyalty—often requiring a Samsung TV to unlock full functionality—and Sonos demands strict placement for its spatial audio mapping to work its magic, LG is leaning hard into flexibility.

TechCrunch notes that this appears to be the first soundbar offering true "any-speaker" compatibility via FlexConnect. The specs suggest you could theoretically mix and match Bluetooth speakers from different brands into your surround setup, which is frankly unheard of in this walled-garden industry. Paired with a claimed 30% improvement in sound dispersion over last year's models, LG is making a compelling case for being the most user-friendly option on the shelf.

Regional Availability

If you're looking to grab one, here is where—and when—they drop:

• North America: Best Buy gets exclusive bundles starting in April 2026.
• Asia-Pacific: South Korea and Japan get first dibs in March 2026.
• Europe: The rollout hits in May 2026, with a starting sticker price of €749.

With CES 2026 right around the corner in January, expect LG to put this AI calibration front and center. We'll be looking to see if the reality matches the promise during the hands-on demos.