By Philip Wong
17/10/2005
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/others/0,39037618,39095666p,00.htm

Just when we thought we had seen the best implementation for eradicating the cumbersome speaker cables from the Japanese, LG's LH-W753TA beats the competition with an innovative one-speaker one-cable alternative which offers clean-cut wireless capability without compromising surround sound performance.

This Korean flagship HTIB ranks high in versatility with its MP3/WMA/JPEG playback from USB devices and could almost pass as a universal disc player with the onboard DVD-audio disc compatibility.

Design
The LH-W753TA low-profile, DVD receiver occupies 430 x 350mm of shelf space and comes in the familiar black-and-silver color scheme which has an unassuming appeal. Decked on the front panel is a row of neatly laid-out playback buttons, while occupying the far right real estate is a volume knob which glows in blue but was a little too flimsy for our liking. Though the recessed USB port is aesthetically pleasing, we ran into problems using the port on numerous occasions, especially with wide thumb drives.

Driving the front and rear channels are four sleek-looking tower speakers clad in aluminum finish with black cloth grilles. While our speakers came partially assembled, a quick check on the manual revealed a fairly complicated assembly procedure. Users are required to snap together two segments of the speaker tower before securing a glass lookalike plastic plate onto the base with four of the provided screws.

	Sure looks like it can double as a sundial! (click here for larger image)

LG has implemented a very effective and elegant design for its wireless surround sound solution. The kit consists of an external audio transmitter mated with a pair of powered speakers with integrated amplifier and wireless receiver. The sundial-shaped transmitter draws its power directly from the receiver unit eliminating the need for an external power adapter and, to top it off, the three-piece ensemble emits a soft blue glow once wireless connectivity is established.

Greeting us onscreen is an intuitive user menu which has a simple layout and structure, perhaps a tad over-simplified in this case as our search for advanced video settings turned out in vain. The distance setting for the front speakers and subwoofer are also disabled and according to the user manual, is due to a limitation by Dolby Laboratories' licensing agreement which we found hard to comprehend as this was the first product we came across with such a constraint.

Features
Housed within each speaker are four full-range drivers powered by 100W of amplification while a beefy 200W is reserved for the down-firing subwoofer. The surround processing suite for the LG includes Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS and five proprietary digital sound processing modes. The LH-W753TA has strong playback capabilities covering DVD-audio, DVD-video, MP3, WMA, DivX and JPEG and is just short of being a universal player if not for the lack of an SACD playback.

	Play back digital multimedia files with USB host. (click here for larger image)

The USB host, first introduced for PDAs, has been making an increasing appearance in home A/V boxes. This can be attributed to the widespread proliferation of MP3 and portable media players which also double as portable storage devices. Equipping the LH-W753TA with this capability allows users to play back digital multimedia files directly from the USB devices on top of the traditional CD/DVD recordable

For wannabe singers, the Korean manufacturer has thrown in a simple karaoke function with dual microphones support supplemented by independent volume control and echo enhancement. We would have missed out this value-added feature if not for the mic sockets and karaoke controls as instructions on utilizing this karaoke function was omitted in the user manual.

To enhance the audio playback quality of the speakers, the Korea manufacturer has incorporated its Excellent True Sound (XTS) and XTS pro technologies which work independently from any of the sound modes. In separate tests conducted in our Lab, toggling the XTS pro provided a distinguishable enhancement to the sound quality especially in the sharpness of instruments.

Connectivity is limited to the standard set of video outputs (including progressive-scan component-video), one digital optical audio input, and two stereo analog inputs. With digitally interfaced TV gaining increased popularity, we would expect HDMI to become a standard feature in the next incarnation of the LH-W753TA.

Performance
This baby is a born screamer. Operating at a mere third of its maximum volume, it was putting out enough "shock waves" to rattle some of the fixtures in our Lab--a plus for loud buggers and those with large living room. The wireless speakers which are rated with an operating range of up to 10m performed extremely well during testing and were on par with their wired counterparts with no indication of interference or apparent lack of power.

Our initial impression of the LG's sonic performance was lukewarm. Although the sound was clean and clear, there was a lack of rhythm and overall presentation was somewhat flat. Interestingly, things picked up as we pressed on with our review and after an hour of warm-up, there was a healthy improvement especially in the midrange vocal performance.

	Rock the house down with a powerful 200W subwoofer. (click here for larger image)

On the whole, bass was aplenty and fairly low, the vocal was smooth but a bit muffled, while the treble was acceptable but not extended enough to bring out the crispness of strings and percussions. Our stereo testing using the upbeat Diana Krall's You're Getting to be a Habit with Me track earned a "She sounds different" feedback from our resident audio arsonist, Edvarcl Heng, who had heard the track innumerable times.

We did, however, have a good time with the surround sound rendition of the Blue Man Group's, TV Song. The LG did a great job keeping up with the fast-paced rhythm and reproducing the multitude of exotic instruments panning from one channel to another. The 200W subwoofer also performed admirably well pumping out earthshaking bass during the massive bass attacks midway through the subwoofer killer track.

Switching over to DVD movies reinforced our positive impression of the LH-W753TA with its capable surround sound steering nicely complemented by the more than adequate low frequency response. Video playback performance using the progressive scan-enabled component-video was a mixed bag of impressions. On the one hand, the picture quality was rock stable and punchy while, on the other hand, we did observe occasional grainy images on some of our reference DVDs.