The LG GP9 speaker is effectively a complete, Hi-Res Audio certified, sound system, featuring a powerful sound card and USB-C audio interface, ESS DAC, and built-in headphone preamp. It offers easy control, seamless compatibility with PCs and the latest gaming consoles for those who care about that. The design style still says "gaming-ugly" with RGB lights, but is not the worse we've seen, featuring a matte black finish and understated metallic elements.
According to LG, the UltraGear Gaming Speaker is a key component of the company's strategy to expand its UltraGear ecosystem and take the gaming experience to new heights. LG already offers some of the absolute best wide displays for gaming and home use. But while those monitors look great, they also make painfully obvious that a thin display cannot offer proper sound quality. At the same time, people increasingly also wish they could enjoy premium sound without wearing headphones and headsets all the time. After all, they are at home and not bothering anyone else.
Leveraging its technology expertise and manufacturing capabilities, LG’s first UltraGear speaker incorporates actual insights from real gamers throughout the development process. The result is a product that frees users from headphones, a key component of the gaming experience that gamers identified as inconvenient and uncomfortable after marathon gaming sessions. And they are not alone.
To create the required impact, the new speaker boasts LG’s proprietary 3D Gaming Sound technology which incorporates a specially-designed HRTF (head-related transfer function) algorithm to tailor a game’s audio according to genre. This results in users being able to experience detailed virtual surround sound, complete with a realistic sense of space, position and directionality, all without a cumbersome headset.
Based on this technology, the GP9 also features a Game Genre Optimizer with two modes that customize game audio to match the type of game being played: a more detailed FPS Mode for "first-person shooter," and RTS (real time strategy) Mode, for a wider spatial sound that matches racing games and the like. And thanks to support for DTS Headphone:X, the UltraGear Gaming Speaker can still provide convincing 7.1 virtual surround sound when users are wearing headsets or earphones connected through the speaker. This might make this speaker an ideal choice for anyone seeking to elevate their gaming setup to a new immersion level when playing - but it also makes it an interesting solution for general home desktop use.
The GP9 is also unique when used for “voice chat” gaming, allowing users to communicate with other players without the need for separate headsets or microphones. The built-in mics processed with a powerful echo-cancellation algorithm, allow users to distinguish a user’s voice from game sounds and background noises. The advanced speaker can also perform the role of the discrete sound card many PC gamers prefer. Not only does it allow users to download professionally tuned EQ settings via a companion app, the speaker also lets users share custom sound settings for specific games with other gamers.
And because LG UltraGear Gaming Speaker is Hi-Res Audio certified, all users, not only gamers, will get first-class sound quality with higher sampling rates, and a richer reproduction of original high-quality, hi-res material. The impressive performance of the GP9 is taken to the next level by a built-in ES9038PRO digital to analog converter, ESS Technology's flagship 32-bit HypersStream II Sabre Pro Quad DAC. When connected to a PC, the speaker delivers the full benefit of its ESS Quad DAC, and users can also connect the speaker to other devices via the aux cable.
And with a variety of connectivity options including optical and USB-C, the versatile GP9 offers an easy way to connect to PCs and gaming consoles. Users can also opt to go wireless and connect to laptops, tablets or smartphones via Bluetooth to enjoy the speaker’s versatility and performance while listening to music or watching video content.
Every aspect of LG’s powerful yet space-saving speaker has been designed with desktop use in mind. The all-in-one form factor, with top-mounted control buttons, make it easy to change microphone, volume and sound modes. For gamers or anyone suffering from meeting-overdoses, there's also customizable RGB lighting that is able to generate 16.8 million different colors. Hey... it's fun, and it is included.
The LG UltraGear Gaming Speaker was designed to fit neatly below UltraGear gaming monitors, but the GP9 also pairs well with any display. The new speaker will be launching in key markets worldwide starting in South Korea and the United States as well as select markets in Europe starting from September 2021. And LG now uses only recycled materials in product packaging.
www.lg.com
