It’s been about 10 years since Samsung exited the projector game but now they are back and have come out swinging with their new Premiere series including the LSP9T and it’s younger sibling, the single laser LSP7T.
Let’s start at the top with the LSP9T Triple Laser, 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector.
This is Samsung’s “Premiere” offering in their Premiere lineup and is currently the only triple laser UST 4k projector available here in the USA.
1) Appearance
As seems to be the current trend with many of these UST projectors, the housing of the unit is only available in white. I understand that Samsung and other manufacturers opt for the white housing for a more modern aesthetic, but I would personally prefer a black housing option to match the other components on or in the credenza.
It features rounded corners and an attractive fabric cover for the speakers on the front of the unit. The projector’s lens is recessed beneath the top of the projector as are most other home theater USTs.
On the back left of the projector is where you will find the power button and other connectivity ports.
This unit has 3 HDMI inputs, 1 of which supports eARC. There is also an optical audio out, usb 5V charging port, network cable, coaxial cable input and Ex-Link Samsung service port.
On the bottom of the projector, there are 2 adjustable feet in the front which will allow you to physically fine tune alignment with your screen.
The Included remote control has your basic volume and channel control as well as buttons to trigger voice commands, and typical playback and menu options.
2) Sound
If you are spending $6,500 on a projector such as this, I would likely suspect or strongly suggest you are also going to be utilizing a separate, dedicated sound system.
Regardless of how good an integrated soundbar is with a projector, having all of your audio come from an area the size of only a center channel significantly reduces the overall sound stage and cinematic experience.
That being said, the integrated audio on the LSP9T is pretty darn good.
The LSP9T has a 4.2 channel, 40w sound system with built in tweeters, woofers and acoustic beam up-firing speakers. The audio is rather crisp and dialogue form any content we previewed was clear.
The speakers were adequate for television viewing however as expected, the lack of a dedicated subwoofer leaves a rather anemic sound when looking for that cinematic experience.
3) Setup
Setup can be rather tedious with all UST projectors as they lack features common in traditional throw projectors such as lens shift and zoom. This means that proper image positioning and alignment with screen is primarily handled by physically adjusting the projector.
As with all UST projectors, even the slightest movement of the projector will significantly impact the placement and geometry of the image. UST projectors also really require a flat, level surface to projector onto (such as a projector screen) in order to prevent any distortion.
The LSP9T has a couple of geometric correction options to help you get the image just right. The most simplistic is a 4-point correction which allows you to adjust the corners of the screen while the more advanced 15 point correction provides you more granular control of the correction points on the screen.
Overall, I found it relatively painless to get this projector dialed into our 120” screen by using the 15 point correction but your mileage may vary.
This projector also has a safety feature that dims the image when it senses something in the path of the light to prevent damage to the eyes caused by the laser light source.
The interface on this unit is the same experience you would get with a current generation Samsung smart tv. While I have no experience with one of those, I still found this interface very intuitive and appreciated the inclusion of built in streaming apps which all support 4k streaming.
Flipping through various picture modes and fine tuning the image were pretty straight forward and I don’t anticipate people having much trouble with this.
4) Image
Now for the most important part; the image!
One of the key differentiation factors of the LSP9T compared to any other 4k UST currently available is the triple laser light source, which used independent Red, Green and Blue lasers which produces some of the most stunning and vivid colors that I have seen from any projector.
This projector covers around 147% of the DC P3 color spectrum and around 106% of BT2020 and will have you future proofed as content taking advantage of that wide color gamut becomes increasingly more available. This is the first projector that is HDR10+ certified and will provide a superior high dynamic range experience.
The specifications of this unit detail a 2,000,000 : 1 dynamic contrast ratio which utilizes the projector’s Dynamic Black for a perceived contrast far superior to it’s lower priced UST alternatives.
The LSP9T is capable of producing a 16:9 image up to 130” inches diagonal while maintaining razor-sharp focus. This UST projector has some of the best optics that we’ve seen and also is able to placed very close to your screen; only needing to be 4.4 inches away to produce a 100” image and 9.4” away for a 130” image.
Boasting 2,800 lumens of brightness this projector is capable of punching through low levels of ambient light and when paired with a specialized ambient light rejecting screen for UST projectors, it can easily become a replacement for your television in a moderate to well lit environment.
Please see our previous video below showing off the picture modes of the LSP9T in a tremendously well lit environment with over 30 foot-candles of light hitting the screen.
There are 4 included picture modes with this projector. The mode with the highest level of brightness is the Dynamic mode.
In Dynamic mode we get the maximum brightness but also have colors that are over saturated and far less accurate. This would be the ideal picture mode for when you have a much higher level of ambient light in the room and are watching content where color accuracy and contrast are less important such as television, sports, cartoons and video games.
A step down in brightness and a step up in color reproduction and contrast would be the Standard mode. This is my favorite mode for when we have all of the lights on as it still provides a bright, vivid image but without blowing out the colors or crushing details in the blacks like Dynamic mode does.
This takes us to Movie mode. This mode is far less bright than Standard mode and packs much less of a punch in terms of vivid colors. What it does however do very well is provide a more accurate image as intended by the content creator and a more familiar film-like visual without the enhanced vibrancy found in Dynamic or Standard mode.
This is a great mode for when you are in a light-controlled environment and are seeking a more cinematic experience.
Taking it a step further is Filmmaker mode which provides an image very close to that in Movie mode, but removes all of the internal image processing such as sharpening, motion smoothing and others.
This is the mode to choose if you want as natural of an image as you can get from the source material and represented accurately as intended by the producer.
I did however notice some speckling artifacts caused by the triple laser. If you are not familiar with laser speckling, the best way for me to describe it would be like a rainbow-glitter most visible on bright white images. While visible from a couple of feet away, when I moved to a more reasonable viewing distance it was far less noticeable.
The speckling also seemed to vary in obviousness based on the screen surface being used. While relatively similar in all of the true 4k UST ALR surfaces we tested, it was significantly more noticeable on surfaces such the Elite Screens CLR 2 and other low-cost “4k Ready” (not true 4k) surfaces.
I had asked several of my colleagues who are not on the sales-side of the company to check out the projector in the demo room and for their opinions on the image. None of them had mentioned the speckling at all and everyone was very impressed with the brightness, sharpness and vibrancy of the image.
5) To sum it up
The Samsung Premiere LSP9T is absolutely one of the best 4K UST projectors available right now in just about every regard. That being said, it is also priced accordingly at $6,500. That is almost 2x more expensive than the other UST in the Samsung Premiere line, the LSP7T.
While this projector may be out of reach for those with more limited means or those who are more interested in getting the best value for their dollar; this is a top contender for anyone who is interested in getting the “Best”.
In order to get the best performance out of this projector in a moderate to well lit environment, we strongly suggest pairing it with a legitimate 4k+ UST ALR screen such as the Grandview Dynamique, Stewart Balon UST, SI Short Throw or Elite Screens DarkStar UST (not their CLR) surface.