LG - XBOOM Go XG9QBK Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Black

Well, this turned out to be somewhat of a surprise. Starting off with the packaging, I was surprised to find a beautiful box with a giant color picture of the product on the side staring out at the street after the delivery. Also was surprised that there was absolutely no tape holding the package together to help prevent prying fingers from finding their way inside. Also surprised at the very substantial weight of the package and the boom box within. However, that surprise was a good one, as I know that that mass allows for the possibility that this product is more likely to deliver some substantial bass if it has the mass to contain and dispense the bass without adding side effects. After disgorging the box of its contents, which consisted of the boom box, its power supply and some meager documentation (didn’t include the USB-C cable mentioned in the documentation), I set it to charging and checked out the external quality of the boom box. It has a very robust looking exterior which appears to be very tough. It claims to be dust and water resistant at a rating of IP67 and the manual claims that it would withstand immersion up to 1 meter/3.28 feet of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, although you better be sure that the door to the connections is closed tightly and dry it off really well before attempting to charge the unit. This unit will give your carrying arm a mini workout as you tote it here and there at a solid 15.7 pounds. And you will, no doubt, want to tote it to your various gatherings, especially outside, where it, for some reason, seems to really shine in its ability to deliver bass and an impressive over-all sounding performance that is capable of fairly loud levels. I think using it inside is almost overkill from the loudness potential standpoint. I really notice the monaural channel configuration when used indoors compared to the more forgiving outside use. In addition, this unit’s monaural channel configuration consisting of a 1” compression horn and two 4.5” woofers driving two passive radiators, lends itself well to blasting out tunes in an outdoor environment over greater distances than when compared to a more refined indoor environment with close-by reflective surfaces that beg to ask where the stereo sound stage went. Speaking of performance, the manufacturer claims that if used at about one-half volume without the side or back stage light on, this unit will play for approximately 24 hours! Other than Carnival, I can’t think of too many parties that last that long, so it should suffice until you can find a place to plug-in the AC to 19 volt/5.9 amp power supply. When you are using the unit under battery power, you can also simultaneously charge a device at a rate of up to 2 amps at the standard 5 volts that a USB-A connector provides. This will reduce the 24-hour battery life a bit, but probably not too much. The battery is a lithium-ion 88Wh (14.8V 5950mAh) that takes approximately 4 hours to fully charge. Going back to some of the other features, there are two different optional lighting functions that can be used for livening up the party and shortening your battery life. One of the functions is the “Stage Lighting” and the other is the “Side Lighting” that are both individually controlled. The “Stage Lighting” throws a multi-colored spotlight out of the back of the unit to highlight something directly behind. The “Side Lighting” merely lights up the edges of the two passive radiators and highlights the product name on the passive radiators. These light effects are controlled both from a switch on the unit itself as well as more comprehensively from an app that allows for light/music interaction and color control. The app naturally has a few adjustments for audio tone tailoring and other items and is available in both IOS and Android. The Bluetooth version is a relatively recent 5.1 which allows for simultaneous multi-point connections to other LG speakers to allow for even bigger, louder sound coverage. But, at the price of these speakers, its hard to imagine that will happen very often. The Bluetooth support is limited to SBC and AAC codecs and includes speaker phone capabilities as well as voice command functions via Google Assistant/Siri. My opinion on this device is that it rocks! It rocks so hard that it rolls rocks. Is it high-end audiophile? No. Is it great for bonfires, camping, parties and outdoor gatherings? Yes. Would I buy it at its full retail price? I’d probably wait for a sale. The lights? Probably a hard pass, but then some people will have fun with it, so whatever floats (lights?) your boat. Some constructive suggestions for the manufacturer might include thinking about adding an internal waterproof speaker pole mount underneath so that the XBoom can be safely elevated a bit to address a crowd that might otherwise partially block the sound coming out. It would also keep it from getting dirty and disturbed while making it easier to access and communicate with Bluetooth devices. Also, after throwing up a calibrated measurement microphone .5 meters away from an on-axis alignment with the high frequency compression driver, I measured the frequency response just to see what effect the different tone adjustments would have on the output. See the last picture in the photos included for the curves described below. With the “Sound Boost” turned on on the front panel, there is a fairly flat response with the inclusion of the “smiley face” eq that adds some bass and treble to the ends of the curve that most people prefer. The next curve I ran was without the “Sound Boost” on and other than about a 5 dB overall drop in volume across the spectrum, there was slightly less drop in the highs and more drop in the lows resulting in a significantly brighter and less bass oriented overall sound. I would suggest that that much overall drop in volume is excessive and unnecessary. It would be better to just affect the tonal difference and leave the volume unaffected. The third curve I measured was with the ”User Eq” selected in the app with the faders set to neutral positions. This yielded a slightly different curve with a significant dip of about 8 to 10 dB at about 1.9 kHz. Unfortunately, when attempting to fill in this dip with the closest equalizer position at 1.5 kHz, the 6 dB of adjustment allowed by the control only yields the resultant last curve which is insufficient to fix the big dip. If there is a software revision that could address this situation by adjusting the DSP settings to yield a relatively flat frequency response before the use of these several user adjustments for personal taste, that would be much more useful to the user. With all that said, this market segment is getting increasingly busy as more and more products hit the shelves and I’ve seen several new ones recently that resemble this product. So, as you try to triangulate your feature, price and performance parameters, don’t forget to consider support and company reputation. LG is only getting more influential with time.

Portable speakers have evolved so much over the years. Never before has there been a plethora of premium sound coming from speakers that you can use inside your home, outside in the yard, or traveling to a campsite, beach, lake, or river. It's an excellent time for a music enthusiast to be a consumer. I don't have to explain that LG is one of the tech leaders when it comes to OLED in tech, but what about speakers? When companies are the leader in one tech division, they want to make sure they take a big swing in other divisions. That's where their speaker game comes in. They have offered many smaller travel speakers for years, but this, XBOOM GO, is a beast of an option. It's costly. It retails or $499.99, so it has some lofty expectations to meet for someone who throws down that kind of money. This differs from a speaker you want to throw around in the sand or mud, like a smaller speaker you'd put in your backpack. This one is as big as the old Boom Boxes from the 80s and 90s. Yet, it sounds much, much better. If you want a speaker, you'll use inside just as much as you will outside (or maybe even more), this is the option for you. The only question I have is how much of the $499.99 is due to the lighting feature. This speaker has a pretty awesome lighting configuration, but some may have little use for it. The lights are a fantastic touch. That's one thing that most of these types of speakers don't have. And you can argue whether or not lights are useful, but you can't argue they aren't cool. These are cool. When you use this speaker with either the lights down or outside at night, you'll see they didn't cheapen out on the lighting effects. The speaker has one giant, bright light on the back and lights on both sides. This thing will bring the atmosphere to any party or get-together. You will be surprised by the bass output from this giant. On the sides of the speakers, where there is a lit-up XBOOM decal, you can see the bass pounding with its 4.5-inch woofer. The music is crisp but adds the bass when you want it, not when you don't. There's an accompanied app where you can customize the equalizer to your liking, but I found the "default" option excellent when first testing it out. Speaking of the app, it's got some great options without being too complicated to manage. You don't need to use it, but it's there for more accessible working with the speaker. You can control and customize the lights to avoid cycling through the default options on the physical buttons. Although I haven't tested it thoroughly, the battery is rated 30 hours, and the speaker is IP67 rated, which is great for dust and water resistance, but I wouldn't have it on the edge of a pool or directly in the sand if I were you. On a blanket would work for sure, however. This speaker screams quality as soon as you take it out of the box. It gives me confidence that it will last several years - and for the asking price, I hope it does. LG is a trusted brand with a reputation to uphold, and they made a product that has excellent value if you want to spice up some get-togethers or your family loves dance parties and lights. There are other, less expensive alternatives if the light features aren't for you, but you won't go wrong with the sound this produces - and in the end, the sound is the most important factor when rating a speaker.

After a couple of gatherings with friends and family, enjoying and having fun with different music styles outdoors, and even indoors (yeah indoors, just seamlessly move the party inside), the LG XBOOM Go XG9QBK portable speaker gets an easy and well deserved 5-star rating. It’s just been an amazing entertainment device for everyone, the powerful sound comes out crisp and clear, with great bass, and its boost mode delivers even a more powerful sound. It has a very long battery life, which allows you to have fun for hours and hours. The added stage and side lights bring visual effects that enhance your experience even more. While the LG XBOOM Go XG9QBK is ready to let you enjoy music out of the box, with its boost mode and the stage and side lights available at the touch of a button, you’d still want to grab the LG XBOOM App for accessing the different configuration settings and adjust them to your needs and set the mood, and well, have a “boom” of an entertainment. - Pros: portable, long battery life, powerful and crisp and clear sound, amazing bass, stage and side lights, configurable through App. - Cons: a little heavy (that’s all). >> Sound The sound that comes out, besides being extremely powerful, is very crisp and clear so that details (which sometimes are lost with other speakers) can be distinguished. The bass is great, it can be felt when close to the speaker. Although it fills the whole environment with sound, you can somewhat control the direction you want the sound to reach more, just rotate the speaker around. Enabling its Boost mode provides an enhanced sound and a more vivid experience, and I’d say it is a must if you really want to enjoy your favorite tunes, especially if they are instrumental. The Boost mode and the regular one should suffice for most circumstances, but if you want to fine grain the sound emitted, then you’d need to install the LG XBOOM App to get access to more Equalizer settings. I imagine what the sound would be if I connected a couple of these little beasts together, I could fill a whole field with sound. I am not an audio expert per se, but to my ears, these speakers are the best portable ones I’ve owned to date, and it even surpasses my other TV soundbars, I am just so pleased to have it (and well, whoever I’ve enjoyed this device with.) >> LG XBOOM App To get the best out of your speaker and have tons of fun with it, you’d need to install the LG XBOOM App to access the various sound and light configurations settings and device information, some of them are: - shows the remaining battery life, - allows accessing the equalizer settings, so you can tune the speaker to whatever meets your needs, - lets to chose the input, if Bluetooth or AUX, - allows controlling the volume and turn off the speaker, - lets to access Side and Stage lighting, to have a relaxing ambience or a more party one. From the above, my favorite ones are the lighting settings, you can pick the Side lighting from among Party, Ambient and Nature, and stage lighting between Joyful and Calm. Adding lights to your music experience has been a good source of fun for me and my family and friends. >> Connectivity I’ve been mostly using Bluetooth to connect to the speaker, from my phone and laptop (and well, a couple of friends have also used their phones to connect and share some of their favorite music.) However, it also comes with an AUX 3.5mm connection, for an extra dose of versatility. If your device doesn’t have Bluetooth, the AUX option comes in handy, I tested it with a phone and the sound was decent. I plan on using the LG XBOOM Go XG9QBK and its AUX connection with a projector for an outdoor movie fun experience before fall arrives. That’ll be epic for sure. This device also comes with an additional USB A type port, which can be used to charge your other devices. Yes, charge them, so that you don’t put an end to the party because you forgot to charge your phone. It provides 2amp at 5V. >> Battery For its size, weight and sound features, the battery life is outstanding. It charges fast and it can deliver several hours of sound. I have not yet verified how many hours, booklet claims 24hrs, but we’ve used it at least for 10 hours at almost full blast before charging it again (well, we just charged it and didn’t wait for the battery to drain.) I have even used it to charge my phone, and enough power was left to continue blasting some tunes. >> Outdoors vs Indoors It is true that most people would think about buying this portable speaker for outdoors use, and based on my experience I could say that indoors is also a great place to have fun with this powerful speaker. It is a little heavy, but highly portable, park, beach, parking lot, camping grounds, backyard, living room, bedroom, you name it, you can have a blast and bring the party or just enjoy some “quiet” music anywhere. As an anecdote, I am using it to play my favorite instrumental tunes while working in the yard and in the garden, it’s provided some great relaxing times as well. >> Other notes I haven’t tested how waterproof it is, eventually it will get some water for sure, but as a careful owner, if I could prevent that from happening, I’ll do it. So far there have been no water accidents with this device. It is a little heavy, yet it is very easy to carry around with the handle. I am glad it is not just a strap, but a solid handle attached to the speaker itself. In a nutshell, that means you can take the music anywhere. One thing I cannot figure out is the need for the sticker that comes with the package. Looking at the picture it looks like it was intended for a speaker without a handle. So just a minor detail that caught my eye.

LG isn’t necessarily the first name you think of when it comes to bluetooth speakers. However the LG XBoom Go XG9 is a powerful and portable Bluetooth speaker that delivers crystal-clear sound with deep bass using dual passive radiators that are both colorful and quite effective. It would definitely be home in parties or on your front porch. With its IPX5 water resistance rating it’s safe by the pool or beach. The LG XBoom Go XG9 even doubles as a speakerphone with a built-in microphone. Overall in the crowded bluetooth speaker market, does the XG9 have enough to make it worth your money? First impressions of the XBoom are praiseworthy. The unit is well boxed and easy to get started with. Interestingly this is the first and only bluetooth speaker that came with the marketing sticker to put on the unit (which lets be real, does anyone like these flimsy advertisements on their device?). The unit self has a nice handle that makes grabbing it easy. Unboxing, you find a fairly large 110w power supply. It’s 19v at 5.8amps, which put it in the same class as fairly powerful laptop power supplies. Obviously this should charge the LG Xboom XG9 fairly quickly. I plugged it in day one and let it charge up to 100%... that’s the last time I’ve used the power supply this entire week. Despite hours of playback in multiple scenes, a pool party, entertaining my kids, and quite a bit of personal listening it’s still touting 60% battery. The large nearly 6000 mAh battery really packs a punch. Perhaps the rated 24 hours of battery is an underestimate as I’ve had at least 13 hours of use at relatively loud listening levels. Setting up is easy. You pair it with your phone (as it shows up at LG-XG9Q) and it immediately suggests grabbing the app from the AppStore. Definitely do, as this gives you more control over lighting and many other features. The drama free setup led into drama free usage. Connection was strong over the 20 meter radius I walked around outside. I didn’t try too much further, but the connection seems quite strong. The sound is excellent. You get 2 4.5” woofers (round I believe) and a 1” tweeter obscured by the fabric cover. You might think that means this is a boring looking speaker, but it’s anything but. Two passive radiators adorn each end of the XG9. They’re highlighted by LED lighting making them stand out as they bang out to the bass. They aren’t just aesthetic, as the advantage of this speaker configuration is great bass performance. The radiator isn’t driven, but rather reverberates in a resonance with the enclosure and active drivers. This means volumetrically the speaker can produce bass a lot louder than you’d expect from 4.5” drivers. I found the sound to be sublime for party music. While this is no critical listening speaker, it does deliver on its target market. You get powerful bass, solid mids, and clear highs on the front side of the speaker. Highs are muted on the backside, but you can still enjoy music. The XG9 features even more RGB lighting besides the radiator highlights. You also get stage lighting, which can provide some ambient lighting for a party. You can optionally sync it with the music and the radiator lights. This is all configurable in the app. You can turn the lighting on and off by using the light button. The light is quite bright and it comes with a warning not to look directly at the light. Most of the time I disabled this light, but the app makes it easy to control. I do wish the app let me set any color I wanted, but instead it gives predefined themes. Speaking of buttons, beyond control via the app, you get power, bluetooth, volume up/down, play/pause, sound boost, and lighting. Most features are self explanatory, but the sound boost - which serves basically as loudness - makes the speaker come alive. In most scenarios you’ll find it adds a presence that you won’t get with it off. You get a more flat frequency response with it off, but you lose the deep bass that brings the party. I’d probably only turn this off if I was listening to a youtube video, podcast, or some other talking head content. Physically this speaker resembles a boombox of yore. You have a nice handle. The unit is wrapped in dark fabric that cleans up nicely. At the pool party I took this to, some kid dropped a cupcake on the XG9. A little bit of water and scrubbing with a soft bristle brush had the speaker looking like new. The unit is a bit heavy for some at 16lbs. That huge battery adds some heft, but the handle makes lugging it around fairly easy. I was delighted about how easy it was to set the unit down and how the rubber feet seemed to make it super easy to reposition without damaging the unit or surface I was placing it on. Hiding in the waterproof rubber seal on the back you’ll find a 2amp USB port for charging devices, which is a nice touch. You also find an auxiliary in 3.5mm jack. Overall, the XG9 was a great addition to my family’s arsenal of good time summer devices. I’ve had a few different bluetooth speakers, and the XG9 just sounds effortless, is plenty loud, and offers fun, but unobtrusive and defeatable lighting. The passive radiators are fun and functional and overall the speaker is an excellent package for the pool, beach, or indoor party.

The LG XBOOM Portable speaker is an impressive addition to my bluetooth speaker collection. It is by far the largest of my bluetooth speakers too. I didn't perceive how large it truly was from the pictures. I have taken some comparison pictures so you can get an idea of the size. From my finger tip to my elbow, it's still a few inches longer than that. Alright, now that I've covered the size, let's get to the features. It has lights built in that are a nice touch. There is also stage lighting built in. The speaker can be level, tilted forward or backward to get the angle that you're after for the stage lighting. The app allows side lights and stage lights to be both on or only one on if you prefer. You can charge your phone on this speaker, you can use two of these speakers simultaneously with the app. It has voice command option capabilities, and you can connect a 3.5mm stereo cable or bluetooth to your tv. One speaker is plenty though to blow me away. The sound quality is excellent. When I use it in the house for regular background music while cleaning etc, I turn off the sound boost because the bass is thumping. Outside is where I really enjoy the sound boost. We used this speaker all day while cleaning out our garage and it lasted the rest of the week for a couple hours use each day. The battery so far has had excellent performance. It does have an indicator when it's low. This is a true boom box. The app allows the settings to be changed for sound quality, but I have found the bass is only capable of lowering so much. It would be nice to be able to reduce it more if you're not in the mood for the thumping. When that happens, I just use my smaller speakers. The user manual is very helpful. The only problem is that you have to download it and print all 38 pages yourself. WIth a speaker this expensive, one should come included. I want to pull it out, flip the pages and see what the speaker has to offer. I don't want to download a small print version to my phone. Also the other complaint is about the app and that is why I am doing 4 stars. The app wants to completely infiltrate your phone and contact info before it allows you to download an update. I'm sorry, there is no reason for an app to need all my phone's personal data to do an update. It is a major privacy intrusion and they are just trying to see what we will give up in order to get an update. They can keep their update. NO THANK YOU. That needs to change. Also, everytime I use the app it wants my specific location. It is also required in order to download the user manual as well. I select "only this time" each time I use it. I can't tell you how much that irks me. I almost did 3 stars because of it. However, you do not have to use the app for the speaker to work. There are special tweaks you can do on the speaker with the app and you can judge if it's worth it. My husband put the app on his phone and once I explained all the privacy intrusions, he immediately deleted it after I told him. (Case and point that most people don't read the terms and conditions).